Tumble
by magicmadnessheavensin
Summary: [Alternate Universe] When cruel messages about Kory Anders are written all over school, her high school career crumbles into irretrievable pieces. And when she befriends Dick Grayson, everything comes tumbling down. [Dick and Kory] [contains: violence; sexual references; swearing]
1. one

_Warning: I'm British, so all information is based on my cousin's Californian high school, and therefore may not be accurate representation of the experience present in American Schools_

* * *

 _ **TUMBLE**_

 **Rated M for strong language, sexual references and sexual violence**

 **All characters belong to their rightful owners.**

* * *

 _Chapter One: The Year that Kitten Moth's Bestie Had Her Name Written All Over School_

* * *

It hung there, in all of its malicious glory. Sprawled in thick black sharpie; the harsh, protruding lines that defined the cruel statement. Taking up the corridor's entire white wall, was the cold message. The first sentence that caught everybody's eye:

 _Kory Anders is a slut._

Dick Grayson, the seventeen-year-old senior was no exception. He opened up the doors to the main building, a bag lazily hanging on one shoulder. After reading the graffiti twice, he turned to his best friend Rachel Roth.

"Ouch," he commented, stepping into the crowded corridor. "That's certainly an interesting way to start the year."

Rachel shrugged, delicately moving a strand of dark hair away from her cheek. "Whoever did this, is going to be caught soon. Kory Anders is the best friend of Kitten Moth. And we all know who _her_ Dad is."

It was no secret that the strawberry-blonde monster sometimes known as Katrina (mostly known as the self-proclaimed 'Kitten') would have a father in power. Unfortunately, his role in society was to donate money to Brookford High School in return of receiving a place on the board of directors, and that was an irritating fact Kitten enjoyed pointing out. It meant that she was given free access to skive from any sort of work, bully to her heart's content, and threaten unsuspecting teachers with the prospect of losing their job.

Dick snorted, used to the blunt attitude displayed by his best friend. "True," he agreed. "But Kitten's gonna blow everything out of proportion — as usual. Ten bucks says she's gonna make some sort of reference to this," he waved his arm, "before the end of the week..."

Raven stared at him, and for a moment he was worried she would scold him for such a childish notion. Rachel Roth didn't do immature bets — she read poetry and drank tea. But to his relief, she gave a curt smile.

"Twenty says before the end of the day." she challenged.

He grinned, shaking his head. "Nah, thirty says before lunch."

Rachel's eyes brightened considerably as they continued through the hall. "You're on, rich boy."

He only chuckled and readjusted the red backpack that currently rested on his left shoulder. A crowd of students had accumulated around the message on the wall, chatting loudly as they excitedly guessed who was responsible.

He groaned slightly, nudging Rachel's side. "You do realise that this is all we're going to hear about for the next year, right? It's gonna be the biggest story of the century."

Glancing at his best friend, her expression mirrored his, mouth turned into a scowl, eyes seething with frustration. It was kind of pathetic, he noted, how easy it was for high school students to pick up a topic and obsess over it for the rest of their life.

Last year had been dubbed, 'The Year of the Cat Fights,' due to the highly unusual number of female students who had ended their arguments with physical violence. Dick had an uneasy feeling that this year would be associated with the graffiti or even worse, 'The Year that Kitten Moth's Bestie Had Her Name Written All Over School.'

A few more hallways only brought more messages.

 _Kory Anders is a bitch._

 _Text Kory for a good time!_

 _The Queen of Slutty Clothes a.k.a Kory Anders is a complete and utter whore._

Whoever had written these comments definitely had a personal vendetta against Kory, and the names used became more vulgar and obscene as Dick and Rachel walked about. Each wall had a different message, a different flaw of Kory's accompanied with doodles of the redhead or random flowers and hearts. A few of the comments referenced extremely dirty acts, and Dick found his eyebrows raising in shock.

But the men's bathroom was the worse. The words used to describe Kory were rude, disgusting and downright horrible. Her number was etched onto the wall, carved with some sort of knife.

 _Call Kory — she's the type of girl who'll blow you! Just ask!_

Students wandered the halls, soaking in the comments, and he even caught one trying to add their own. Dick began to feel utter remorse for the poor girl, whose first day of senior year was going to be the worst day of her life. At least Kitten would guarantee that all of the comments were down as soon as possible.

"This person's really digging it in." he commented. "I feel really bad for Kory."

Rachel's face was devoid of emotion. She shook her head, grimacing slightly. "I don't." she stated, simply. "When I was ten, Kitten poured a carton of orange juice on my hair in front of the whole class. Whoever voluntarily spends time with a bitch like her, obviously acts like her."

He'd never heard that story before, but judging by her tone, she'd obviously been quite upset about it, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Rachel didn't even look relieved at all. She tucked her hair behind her ear, changing the subject quickly. "I haven't seen Gar at all, this morning." she said, changing the subject.

Dick thought back to his blond-haired goofball of a best friend, whose famous quality lay in the form of (sometimes entertaining, mostly corny) jokes. The banter between Rachel Roth and Garfield Logan was the only thing that kept him sane at times.

"He's probably catching up with his beauty sleep," he laughed.

A small smile appeared on Rachel's pale lips. "Considering he spends all of his life sleeping, you would begin to wonder about how much beauty sleep he actually needs."

She gave a soft giggle but was interrupted when a brunette junior spun on her heel and told them to stop talking because Kory Anders was about to enter the school. He clenched his jaw in frustration, pulling a face at Rachel.

Any thriving noise in the hallway immediately died down as the two doors opened. Inside, stepped the wavy redhead, holding her bag on one shoulder and using her other arm to clutch a folder. She was wearing a miniskirt, a halter-top and tall boots; her clothing matched a runway, not a high school.

Her face was confused at first, probably due to the number of people obscuring the sign. But as soon as the crowd parted, her lips parted in surprise.

"I think we need to get out of here. Things are going to get real ugly." he told his best friend, as they subtly moved into the next hallway.

Rachel nodded, still solemn. "What class do you have first? I've got AP History with Mod."

Dick only needed one word to conjure up the image of the scarlet-haired, eccentric history professor who was extremely devoted to his homeland. The man who used obscure British slang and had nicknamed his least favourite students "duckies" (and unfortunately Mr Grayson was on that list).

"I've got AP English with Carlson. And somehow Kitten bought her way into that class, so she'll probably make a graffiti reference. Remember, you'll owe me thirty dollars."

"Sure." Rachel replied, her voice holding a bitterly sarcastic tone to it.

The corridor split into two others, and the friends parted. He tried to avoid reading any more of the vicious signs, but they were positioned in such a way that one part would always catch his eye, regardless of how hard he tried.

* * *

Kory Anders reluctantly trudged to her AP English class, feeling pure humiliation. She had never been fond of her name — it was a combination of two boys' names — but at that particular moment, she completely loathed it.

When she had read the first message, emotions of shock, confusion and hurt had run through her. But an overwhelming need to leave the country and change her name had soon accompanied. It didn't help that her red hair made her stand out, and her mini-skirt made her look more promiscuous than intended.

She tugged at her skirt for the third time, wishing it to grow in length. It was Ryan's first day of high school and he'd read most of the walls. He'd spent ten minutes checking that she was okay — she lied, right to his face — before finding his first class.

Kory opened the door and every single member of the class stopped talking. In any other scenario, the idea of rendering a whole room silent would have thrilled her, but all she felt was embarrassment.

She fixated on a desk in the back corner, making her way towards it, when she heard the familiar argument between Xavier Redd and Lana Scholey.

"So…is it true that your dad married a woman who goes around pretending she's Taylor Swift?" Xavier asked, smirking.

Lana's response was a curt, "Go fuck yourself," but then she added, "Or how about just ask Kory Anders — I'm sure she'd do it for free."

Tears threatened to prick at Kory's eyes, but she bit her lip and gave Lana her best death glare.

Xavier turned around to face her, ran a hand through his dark hair and said, "So Kory, your place or mine?"

She completely ignored him, and sat down, pulling out her glittery notebook. Kitten would get her dad to clean up the whole place before the end of the week, and nobody would ever mention it again. All Kory had to do was survive the week from Hell.

By the time Ms Carlton had arrived, everybody was present and gossiping about the "slutty Kory Anders." Class started with each student receiving their copy of George Orwell's Animal Farm, as well as a brief introduction of expectations. The first few lessons revolved around pair work — something Kory detested currently.

Pairs were going to be pre-arranged, and by the time Ms Carlton began to read out her list, twenty minutes had already passed.

"…Kory Anders and Kitten Moth…"

Relief coursed through her at the prospect of working with her best friend. It was going to be all right now; Kitten would make sure that the messages were erased and —

"Excuse me, Ms Carlton, I need a new partner." The shrill, clear voice of Kitten Moth — her best friend — pierced through the silence.

The brunette woman at the front crossed her arms, holding an expression of disbelief. Her overall stance made her seem like a force not to be reckoned with, at that current moment.

"Why _?_ "

Kitten outstretched a hand and peered at her nails whilst Kory slumped forward in her seat. "I'm not talking to Kory!" she declared.

Flashes of anger attacked Kory. She was supposed to be her best friend, but Kitten had suddenly decided that she wasn't good enough! It was frustratingly painful; the mood of her day had deteriorated quickly within two hours.

Ms Carlton sighed, looking bored. "And _why_ aren't you talking to her?" she asked.

The blonde girl grimaced. "Haven't you read any of the hallway walls? She's a bitch!"

Kory recoiled as if Kitten had physically slapped her. She bit her lip and willed herself not to burst into tears.

"I will not tolerate that sort of language here, Miss Moth." Ms Carlton then turned to the rest of the class. "Would anybody be willing to swap with Kitten?"

To her complete and utter dismay, not a single person raised their hand. A few shuffled uncomfortably, but none of them had wanted to switch. Kory could've died then, right on the spot.

Another sigh, and then, "Very well. Both of you will be working by yourself."

Class continued, but Kory didn't pay attention to a single word spoken. She used her hair to cover her face and stared blankly at the words as they swam off the page. She focused on the clock; on the tapping of feet; on the sounds of pages turning.

In her mind, she was everywhere, _but_ the stuffy classroom.

Somebody tapped her shoulder softly, but she ignored it. Two more taps, and she turned to her side, facing Dick Grayson.

"Hey," he greeted sheepishly. "Uh…do you know what page we're on?"

Kory blinked in a vain attempt to get rid of any half-formed tears. "Seventeen, I think."

"Cool." He looked away, and then turned back towards her, smiling warmly. "Hey, do you…uh need a tissue?"

It was kind of cute the way Dick sounded so concerned, but Kory brushed away any thoughts like that.

"I'm fine, thank you," she lied, using the back of her hand to wipe away any remaining unnecessary moisture from her eyes.

A few more classes passed (Biology, French, Math) before lunch rolled around, bringing a new hurricane of stares and whispers. Kory had begun to lose respect for her peers; they were mean cowards who acted as if she was a toxic variation of a common cold.

Ryan had bumped into her in the crowd twice, holding concerns about her, but she had dismissed them casually. She was the cool, calm and collect Kory, not the freaky girl who wanted to disappear into the depths of Hell (which was definitely less painful than High School).

She smiled, and kept her head up high, clutching books to her chest, keeping the perfect picture of confidence. In reality, the bubbly Kory Anders was plotting her escape to Florida (they had nice food there), the Cayman Islands (no tax!) or England (cute boys with even cuter accents).

And every time she passed her name, her stomach lurched and she fought the urge to vomit.

The school cafeteria sold barely edible food accompanied with a tiny carton of orange juice, an apple, a chocolate pudding and a piece of bread. Kory had never payed so much attention to the tiny grey tray, but it beat the alternative of watching every student as they stared at her.

Kitten's table was in the middle — it allowed her to keep control, or so she said — and she was already sitting there by the time Kory had collected her lunch.

A quick glance allowed her to spot her three other friends, who were next to Kitten.

The pretty Vietnamese Hayley Adaro, who had her black hair cropped into a bob as per Kitten's suggestion. She was nudging Amber Roberts (who'd only joined their group after Tara left) a girl with a mahogany ponytail, and a red t-shirt.

And Kitten, with her strawberry-blonde hair, blue eyes and signature pink hairband, munching on a special K raspberry breakfast bar. Kory glanced at her three friends, wracking her mind for any faults she might have committed during the summer. Kitten was definitely upset with her — her vindictive actions in English had shown that.

She reached the table and gave an apologetic smile. "Kitten, I know I'm not your favourite person, but I really want to apologise for whatever I've — "

The sounds of shoes scraping against the floor as her three best friends stood up from the bench, gave her dirty glares and promptly left the table. Their food trays were still filled with their lunch.

Kory almost collapsed in a flood of tears. She could feel the eyes of every senior student staring at her, silently mocking the pathetic mess that was Kory Anders. Whispers of "I knew that would happen! Who would want to be friends with her when those messages are everywhere?" and, "She deserves it, wearing that slutty outfit!"

She was frozen to the spot, rooted with embarrassment, humiliation, hurt and mortification. There was nowhere for her to hide, nowhere for her to disappear until everything blew over.

The speaker system gave a familiar series of beeps, before the clear voice of the secretary broke the silence.

"Could Kory Anders please report to the principal's office?"


	2. two

_Hi there, and welcome to chapter two! Reviews and Criticism is welcome! You might have noticed that I changed the name of their city/town from 'Jump City' to 'Brookford.' Only reason is because when I was writing this, I realised that the location I was describing was nothing like California (which is the unofficial location of Jump City). So the location has changed, but that literally means nothing in regards of plot - the description is a filler._

* * *

 _Chapter Two: The Vision Between Crazy Log Cabin and Modern Office_

* * *

Dick watched as the slender figure darted through the cafeteria doors. "I repeat: could Kory Anders please make her way to the principal's office?" The voice repeated, and then the conversations resumed.

Gar chucked a french fry which narrowly missed his cheek. "Dude!" he called. "Were you listening to a single thing I just said?"

Giving a sheepish grin, Dick scratched the back of his neck, "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about Kory."

The blond boy visibly winced. "Yeah, I heard. How sucky is that, especially on the first day back? I was in the principal's office earlier on, and they're planning to repaint all of the walls by the end of the week."

Rachel frowned. "That's almost twenty-three walls."

"Twenty seven if you count all of the bathrooms, too." Dick added in, recalling the wide range of colourful words scrawled on the walls that were used to describe the redhead.

Gar munched on his fry and cringed. "Yuck. Do they even cook these?"

"Doubt it."

He groaned slightly, eyeing at the sandwich in front of Dick. "What's in that?" Gar nudged the bread with his fork, earning a scowl from his dark haired friend.

Rachel spoke before he could even remember what was in the food.

"Cheese and herb Italian bread with ham, tomato, Red Leicester cheese, lettuce, cucumber and butter."

Gar's mouth hung open in awe. "Woah, how did you know that?"

She rolled her eyes, fixating on him with a cold glare. "He eats that every day."

For one moment, Dick expected Gar to retort back in indignation, but the kid just shrugged. "Apart from the ham, that sounds pretty good." he paused and then gave a goofy grin. "Wanna swap?"

The choice seemed unbelievably obvious. His lunch could consist of Alfred's homemade sandwich of glory, or a burnt bean burger with fries that resembled rocks and half of Gar's juice carton.

He smirked in response. "No thanks. I'd rather not spend my afternoon in the E.R. with food poisoning."

Garfield Logan's extremely mature reply was his tongue sticking out of his mouth. "I'll end up meeting a cute nurse though!" he bragged.

A tray slammed into the table and Wally West grinned. His green eyes flashed with amusement as he sat down. "I doubt she'll be interested in you, when you won't stop vomiting. That's the biggest turn off."

Rachel snorted. "You don't say," she stated, the bite in her voice laced with sarcasm.

Gar folded his arms. "She won't be able to resist me!" he declared.

"Actually," Wally corrected, "she won't be able to resist me."

"Wait, why would you even be there?" He questioned, throwing his arms up dramatically.

It was as if Wally had known the answer all of his life. "Dude, the chicks dig thoughtful men!" (Dick had to do everything in his power not to scoff) "I'll be the caring best friend who doesn't leave your side, barely eating and never sleeping. She'll see how caring I am and my charms will woo her into my arms."

The conversations between Wally and Gar always found an unexplainable way to completely miss the main point and instead travelled through a long, winding path. It was entertaining up to a certain extent, and Dick realised it had reached that area when the redhead was trying to explain how he'd get Charlotte ("All nurses have to have sexy names!" — Wally's exact words) into bed.

Rachel beat him to the punch, for the second time that day. She wrinkled her nose and dryly said, "Wally, keep going and I'll drag you down to the depths of hell."

"Aww." Wally cooed. "You'd really do that for m—"

An unnervingly cold stare finished him mid-question.

"So…" Dick announced, hoping to break some of the tension. Wally and Rachel had never quite fit the way he had intended them to. Their personalities were too different — and Wally's irritatingly disgusting ability to flirt with anything that had breasts didn't help the matter.

If he was being truthful, Rachel didn't fit with him properly either, but that argument didn't deter him from becoming her closest friend — apart from Gar, but she would never openly admit that to anybody, not before killing them, anyway.

"Gar volunteered to chose our movie for next Saturday, but I'm not going to watch Star Wars for the fiftieth time."

"Why don't you want to watch Star Wars?!" Garfield cried. He checked off the points with his fingers. "It's got hot Princess Leia, action, fighting, R2-D2, Darth Vader, and hot Princess Leia!"

Rachel pointed out, "You've already said that."

"So?" he argued. "She's Princess Leia! It's one of the greatest sci-fi series in the world – in fact no, it _is_ the greatest sci-fi movie series to ever exist!"

She only replied with an over exaggerated groan whilst Dick turned to Wally. "Any suggestions?"

"Das Star Wars," he said, holding a poor attempt of a straight face.

Dick internally cringed. "That's not even correct German!" he protested. "If you want the correct translation it's —"

Gar interrupted with the enthusiasm of an excited puppy. "So are we watching Star Wars or not?"

Rachel didn't seem to protest and he was outvoted two-to-one, leaving him no choice to reluctantly accept. There wasn't anything bad about Star Wars — except they'd already had two movie marathons this year, and he didn't have the patience to sit through another.

Wally brought up the next question. "Whose house are we bunking at? My parents have some work thing and they don't trust me home alone."

"What a surprise." Rachel contributed. "That's probably got _nothing_ to do with the fact that you trashed your house last time."

It was no secret that Wally West thrived on socialisation, and therefore it made perfect sense that he would inevitably throw some sort of overly extravagant house party. Unfortunately for him, the large majority of teenagers who came had never met him before and completely wrecked the place. Dick still hadn't forgiven him after their gang had spent five hours trying to clean up flaked vomit off the walls.

He could still picture the scene. Beer cans littered on the floor like a second carpet, the sofa stained with whiskey, pizza on the ceiling fan. It was another indicator of how disgusting teenagers could be. There were several moments during that weekend where they had discussed hiring cleaning help (Dick had the money) but ultimately decided against it. After all, any respectable person would probably have had a heart attack after stumbling on their scene.

Wally turned his head to regard Dick, giving a hopeful smile. "Star Wars at Wayne Manor, then?"

He thought back to his guardian's stern words at the end of the summer and shook his head. "Nope. Bruce's still bitter 'bout that time you and Gar went crazy over sugar and smashed his vase."

An apologetic look settled over Wally. "It was an accident, I swear!" he defended.

"And I'm sure it wasn't even that much," Gar chimed, despite knowing the exact price. "I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart sell them."

Dick shook his head. "Regardless, he's been pretty stressed about work so aggravating him won't exactly help our relationship."

He could sense that Gar had questions, but he was glad nobody touched the subject. It wasn't his favourite topic currently.

Gar shoved a handful of fries into his mouth, ignoring Rachel's extremely disgusted look, and smiled lazily. He seemed to have switched places and now leant on the table as opposed to actually sitting on the bench provided. Wally did the same, but the present girl in their group sat with her hands in her lap, extremely daintily.

"Looks like we're spending next movie night at my place." Gar drawled.

"Yippee!" Rachel deadpanned.

Dick snickered in response before checking the time on his watch. Five minutes 'til class started, and he'd only taken seven bites of his sandwich. Three hundred seconds to reach his infinitesimal locker, grab his numerous stack of books and find the best seat possible. Definitely not impossible, but it really _wasn't_ how he wanted to spend the next few minutes.

Wally flicked a chunk of apple in his direction but it managed to skim across the air and end up six feet away from its intended target. After sighing, his thoughts mirrored Dick's and he groaned.

"I guess we better get going then. Only two more hours of this hell that they call _school._ "

Dick shrugged. "I've got French and Physics. Probably the worst two classes."

Wally gave him a look of disbelief. "Dude, physics is literally the best class ever. And you speak fluent French, so I don't know what the heck your problem is!" he stated accusingly, tones of humour underlying his words.

It was true; Dick spoke French, Spanish, _and_ Romani (the first two due to Bruce's incessant nagging – "The heir of Wayne Enterprises should be intelligent." – and the last, for personal reasons). But it didn't mean that French lessons were an absolute holiday (far from it, actually). It meant that Madame Rouge was forever trying to catch him out with obscure slang, or passing him worksheets that had no relevance to the language.

Kory Anders spoke fluent French too, but Madame Rouge held the same feelings towards her, and had shoved her the opposite corner – meaning that he couldn't interact with her in any way. Besides, Kory might have been pretty, but her priorities were askew.

"Doesn't mean I actually want to be there." Dick muttered, but Wally had already found himself on the other end of the corridor, flirting with a blonde girl.

* * *

Kory pulled at her skirt, and resisted the urge to sigh dejectedly. It had been thirty minutes since Principal Blud had requested her to come to his office. He'd been in a "simply _unavoidable_ meeting, sorry Miss Anders," for the past fourty minutes, and she was beginning to question his presence in school.

The little bench in the reception was home to an assortment of colourful graffiti. If she traced her fingers over the wood, she could feel each letter of interesting sentences, such as, 'Hal J. rocks,' and 'Sel and Pam are best friends forever.' She supposed if she knew any of those people, the words would make more sense.

The receptionist's telephone let out a series of beeping noises, indicating that it was yet another person calling. Kory grimaced as the beeps continued, finally stopping after fifty seconds had passed.

When the architects had planned this room, their vision had fallen between _crazy log cabin_ and _modern office_. There was an abundance of coloured glass used for the receptionist's desk and the surrounding panels, but the rest of the room was covered in slick oak. It meant that the overall effect was clashing materials and an ugly design.

She didn't even know the receptionist's name. "Excuse me? Miss?"

The receptionist looked up and chewed on her piece of gum. "Yes?"

"How long is Principal Blud going to be? I've got class in five minutes." If she was being truthful, Kory didn't mind missing class, but she knew she would regret it in the future.

Her face curled into an apologetic smile, whilst the older woman shrugged. "His meeting will finish within the next ten minutes."

The redhead crossed her arms frustrated with the same response that had been given to her twenty minutes ago. She was caught between terror – it _was_ a meeting with the principal – and relief – she didn't have to endure the whispers and glances about her.

Her mind swam back to the incident with Kitten and on cue, her stomach growled slightly. She was starving, and the stress of the day had begun to make her nauseous. A tanned hand placed itself on her gut, in a weak attempt to calm herself down.

The doors opened and Principal Blud strolled through. His name fit his appearance – bloodthirsty – with narrowed eyes, a grey beard and a pinstripe suit. An elderly woman who shared his white hair and wiry frame accompanied him, but she soon disappeared through the doorway that led out of the school.

His presence was unnerving, to say the least.

He turned to face her, and Kory's whole stomach lurched violently. Everything about his expression indicated that he was not pleased to see her, and that only made confirmed her fears.

Principal Blud motioned back to his office. "This way, Miss Anders."

His lack of politeness and extremely cold tone irked her, but it gave her enough incentive to stand up and move.

The office was sickeningly white – an extremely sterile environment. White walls and beige carpet. Ivory cupboards and ivory drawers. Even the three chairs that surrounded the desk were white with snow-coloured, linen cushions. The only dark colour was the magnificently sleek desk in the middle.

He motioned once more for her to sit, before taking his place behind the desk.

"I am sure you understand why I have called you to my office." Principal Blud said.

"Yes," she lied.

"This is an extremely serious matter and your parents will be informed by the end of the day. Due to the nature of the graffiti, you will be required to visit the school's guidance councillor twice a week." He sounded angry, as if Kory had personally requested the meeting.

The principal continued, staring blankly at her whilst she shuffled under his gaze. "The school will be using students with after-school detentions to clean up the walls and repaint them."

When he didn't say anything for longer than thirty seconds, she took it as an unhelpful cue to leave. But as soon as the redhead stood up, Principal Blud started speaking again.

"However, regardless of the circumstances, it does not give you a right to act rudely or aggressively towards other students. Miss Katrina Moth reported your behaviour, but we have decided not to take any action, _yet_." The last word stung, slicing through the air and bringing back every single feeling of worry to Kory.

She cocked her head slightly to one side. "Wait…what aggressive behaviour?"

Principal Blud's hands rifled through the drawers until they found a yellow slip. "According to this report," he read, "You insinuated that Katrina was a 'stupid slutty bitch.'"

Kory's mouth opened in shock. " _What_? I never said a single thing to her!"

"Do you believe Miss Moth is lying?" There was a razor sharp edge to his voice, and if Kory protested any further, she had an awful feeling he was going to rectify his decision and give her some sort of punishment.

Kitten's dad was on the board of directors and in some cases, he held more power than the principal himself. There was no point trying to deny Kitten's vicious lie, so Kory only shook her head in response.

She had an awful feeling that her week wasn't going to become any better.


	3. three

_Okay, it's chapter three, that took year to type and a century to post! Family bonding and cutie things like that._

* * *

 _Chapter Three: The Only Argument was Trying to Determine Who Had the Biggest Ice Cream_

* * *

The perfect end to the worst day ever came in the form of a thunderstorm. Kory gripped her bag tightly as the rain soaked her shirt, and caused it to stick to her chest like a second layer of skin. She wanted to complain, but she lacked the energy and resolve, and instead let a small sigh escape her glossed lips.

After Principal Blud had gifted her with the messiest hall pass known to mankind, she'd spent the remainder of her afternoon learning about quadratic equations, revising chemical bonds, completing French worksheets and doing everything humanly possible to not draw any sort of attention to herself.

It was a bittersweet opportunity — learning who her real friends were. It would have been a proper learning experience, but it was apparent that any person she had remotely considered friendly didn't really like her. And if they did, their loyalties lay somewhere else.

Ryan had darted inside the main building to retrieve his Physics textbook, leaving her alone in the rain. Dense raindrops pelted against her bare arm and puddles surrounded her shoes. The sky was a shade of dull grey with the clouds obscuring any hint of sunshine. Her mood matched the weather perfectly — lonely and depressed.

Ryan entered through the doors and wiped his damp forehead with his sleeve. "What time is it?"

She glanced at her phone. "Two fifty-seven."

"Shouldn't Kim be here by now?"

A sigh escaped from her lips. "I will try calling her again."

She dialled her sister's number, and a picture of a scowling adult with black bangs and a purple top came to the screen. Her voicemail played once more – Kim using her extravagant lifestyle as a poor excuse of why she hadn't picked up her phone yet.

Ryan groaned, and used his hand to move his hair out of his eyes. The result was a mop of damp crimson curls that stuck out oddly towards the right. "Why hasn't she come yet? I swear, if she's ditched us for that crappy boyfriend of hers…" He trailed off, shuffling against the railing.

The current beau was Philip Karras, a Greek boy who went to the same college as Kim. His personality contrasted deeply with hers, but nobody minded. They'd been dating for almost six months now, except Kim still continued to insist the relationship was nothing serious.

"I'm sure she's running late." Kory was forever a beacon of optimism. But even now, her patience was beginning to wilt, especially as the rain pounded faster and heavier against the sidewalk.

The front of their school was a large modern building, complete with basil-coloured benches, silver trashcans and a grey railing near the large doors. Trees had been planted next to the path that twisted and turned to the side, towards the spacious parking lot. Cars sped past on the road.

Ryan uncrossed his arms and dug his phone out his jeans pocket. He pressed the phone to his ear, scowling. Kory counted five rings before a sharp voice answered. The words were inaudible, but the tone sounded irritated.

Her brother's voice mirrored Kim's. "Where are you? You're supposed to have picked us up thirty minutes ago!"

More murmuring emitted from the phone. Ryan's foot kicked the bench and he growled.

As much as Kory loved her siblings, the relationship between her younger brother and older sister was as tumultuous as a hurricane. Kim had a fiery temper that only served to provoke Ryan's cool demeanour. She snapped at him, swore at him and he usually responded with horrible insults.

Their relationship was the source of much of the tension in her household, especially since it was Kim who refused to help out with any of the chores. She spent more time berating Kory or yelling at Ryan, and with their parents constantly travelling, home could become extremely suffocating.

"You're kidding me. What sort of bitch are you?" Ryan asked as Kory bit her lip and willed for the conversation to improve. "Are you serious? Really? Have you _looked_ outside of the window?"

Another two minutes of mumbles and incoherent sentences from Kim's end. The rain had found an unbelievable way of becoming fiercer, as the winds picked up and shook the trees tremendously.

Kory counted the number of leaves on the pavement ( _seven_ ), checked her phone for any text messages ( _two from her cousin in France who was worried about her date next Monday_ ), read the engraving on the school wall ( _'Knowledge is the greatest power'_ ) and flexed her toes. She sorted out her bag, tied up her hair, and made a note of how many freckles Ryan had on his arm (twelve).

Finally, he slammed his phone into his back pocket and took a series of deep breaths. Kory didn't need to ask him what the situation had ended up being; the fragmented conversation was enough evidence.

Her brother turned towards her and crossed his arms. "She won't be picking us up because she's going to see a movie with Phil on the other side of the city."

She loved her sister, but at times like this, Kim was extremely frustrating. Although, if she was being truthful, it Kim didn't have any idea about what was going on at school, and she doubted her sister had meant to do this. Kory began walking towards the gates, inclining her head slightly.

"I assume we'll be walking home then?" she asked.

Ryan nodded, unable to keep the frown off of his face. He rubbed his nose and walked beside her as silence settled between the pair.

The walk home was unpleasant. The weather seemed to hold a personal vendetta against them: the wind rustled the leaves; the rain pierced the sidewalk; the sky stayed forever grey.

It was late August but it felt like a windy October's evening.

Ryan kicked a pebble on the sidewalk, a picture of annoyance. He was angry — Kory could sense that — but the reasons were foreign to her.

Eventually he spoke. "How was your day today?"

She hugged her jacket closer, almost as if it would protect her from the truth. "Awful." Kory admitted. Her eyes pricked with tears whilst they focused on the ground.

Her brother put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," she reassured, but the bitterness got the best of her. "The person who decided they really didn't like me is the one to blame."

"I know, but it still sucks." Ryan's fists tightened slightly, and Kory watched with concern.

Her brother was usually as bubbly as she was — he rarely argued with people, and his temper had never gotten the better of him. She guessed it was the cruel events of today that had sent him spiraling into a bad mood.

His face brightened when she asked him, "What about your first day?"

Ryan grinned. "Pretty cool actually. All of my classes are close to each other and I haven't encountered any crappy teachers yet."

Kory gave a coy smile. "Found any interesting people?" She was teasing him, but he was completely oblivious.

"Yeah, there's this really nice girl called Kole. She's super sweet and we almost got lost together."

"Really?" The redhead nudged him, giggling slightly.

His face turned into a dark shade of tomato, matching his hair. "Wait…no, I didn't mean it like that."

It was fun to tease her brother. It reminded her of back when her Mom and Dad weren't travelling without their children, and they'd spend summer having a backyard barbecue in Tamaran. Ryan had befriended their pretty neighbor and everybody had laughed at him for weeks.

Back when Kim could tolerate her family, and the only argument was trying to determine who had the biggest ice-cream.

The temperature seemed to drop, and it only made Kory feel even sicker. Reminiscing wasn't the best idea — it only reminded her how much everything had changed.

"I'm sure you didn't," she giggled. "What colour is her hair?"

Ryan looked wary. "Why?"

"I was going to do the guessing of your children's appearance." Kory's native accent slipped out, reminding her even more that she still hadn't fully mastered English.

He was scowling again, but good-naturedly this time. He punched her lightly on the arm. "Kory!" he cried.

She only giggled once more. "Don't worry Ryan. I'm sure she likes you too."

He made a frustrated sound from the back of his throat, shaking his head in disbelief. His green eyes were wider than usual, and Kory sensed that he was frustrated. "I've got eight pieces of homework due in for tomorrow. Is that the usual amount?"

Kory didn't comment on the sudden change of subject, but she certainly acknowledged it. "They'll make the first week full of work, but I promise they'll calm down before the beginning of September."

She remembered struggling for the first week – her and Kitten had spent a lot of the afternoons shopping at Brookford Mall. They'd gotten lost with Frappuccino's in one hand and Kitten's credit card in the other: a spending spree like no other.

Of course, her Dad hadn't been very pleased with her, but Myron Anders had never been pleased with any of his children. She shook horrid thoughts like that out of her mind – she loved her Dad, she always had.

"Thank X'hal." Ryan praised, tearing her from any inner-turmoil. "Otherwise I don't think I'll have much of a life outside of school."

Another series of leaves danced across the pavement, lost in the wind. They were halfway home, nearing the gated communities of the affluent and charismatic residents of Brookford. The mansions with indoor – and outdoor – swimming pools, dazzling chandeliers and thousands upon thousands of rooms.

People like Dick Grayson lived in those houses.

Ryan kicked a crushed soda can and she watched as it twisted before landing in the path of an oncoming car. "We've got a freshmen party next week and since Mom and Dad aren't here –" Kory ignored the pang in her heart "– I was wondering if I could go. I'm asking you since Kim's barely around, whereas you'll be at home."

She shrugged, before grinning wickedly. "Sure, of course you can go. Maybe you can ask Kole to go with you."

By the time they had reached the moderately sized house, Kim's sleek and silver Mercedes had already been parked outside. A surge of anger ran through Kory but she settled it down immediately – her sister would always find a way to annoy Ryan.

Kim greeted them at the door, dressed in a tight t-shirt and denim shorts. She sported a new hairstyle: a black bob that framed her sharp chin and softened her cheeks. Nails coloured bright black and a pair of blue sneakers finished off her look.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. "Nice haircut," he commented dryly.

Kory watched with a mixture of concern and anticipation. Kim didn't look offended; this was a much-needed reminder that her sister was still a good person, even if her priorities became a little skewed.

"I was thinking of going brunette." Kim drawled. "But I decided I _really_ couldn't be bothered to dye my hair again."

She was traditionally a redhead (like every member of the Anders family) but had convinced their parents to allow her to change her hair colour, at the small age of ten. Sometimes the copper would show up in streaks of hair.

Her brother cut to the chase. "So were you getting your hair done, or watching a movie? Because neither of them seem to be good excuses for you not picking us up."

Smirking that could be seen as patronising. "I thought you liked walking."

"Not in this weather."

" _Oh_. Silly me. Oh well, I guess you two better come in now."

Kim moved her body out of the doorframe and allowed the pair to enter the hallway. Ryan immediately dropped his bag on the floor, and it landed on a heap of other bags and boxes. Kory preferred to place it daintily on the side, resolving that she would sort out the mess before the end of the week.

Their spacious kitchen possessed a tray of cucumber and carrot sticks on the marble work surfaces. Kim had laid out hummus and caramelised onion dip in two pink bowls. She munched on a carrot stick and perched herself on a stool.

"So how was your day?" she asked.

Kory couldn't bring herself to meet her sister's gaze, so she stared at the patterned kitchen tiles. "Fine." she lied.

"Really? We've got a message from your school on the answering machine for Mom and Dad." Any hint of the usual catty tone had disappeared. For once in her life, Kim showed genuine concern for her sister.

Kory hugged herself. She wanted to pretend that every single thing in her life was perfect, but the twisted truth was the furthest reality from that. School had been horrible, and any remaining optimism for the next day had been sucked from her. It had been awful. People had stared at her like she was some sort of lab specimen.

She plaited a strand of her hair. "Just some graffiti about me. Nothing that was too hurtful." Two lies, and Kim figured them out extremely quickly.

"Whoever wrote them is just jealous of my baby sis. I wouldn't worry about them, sweetie."

Her sister's sweet words tugged at Kory's heart. It was pathetic how terrible of an event there had to be, to bring the Anders sisters back together. At least her family was on her side (as opposed to the two thousand students currently enrolled in Brookford High School, who seemed to hate her).

Kory swung her legs over to the opposite end of the stool and pressed her hands against the wall. "How has your day been?" she grinned, reaching for another cucumber stick.

Kim smiled in return and shrugged. "Jenny's boyfriend dumped her; she's gone on an Instagram spree where she's unliked all of their couple photos. Oh, and she sent a bag of rotten vegetables to his front door, except she got the wrong address and some random lady got them instead."

The sisters laughed loudly, and continued their conversation before exploding into another fit of unstoppable giggles.


	4. four

_There's swearing, and then there's this chapter. I'm_ _not_ _kidding, there is a lot of rude language and manysexual references. P.S can you get any of the DC/Teen Titan character references? :)_

* * *

 _Chapter Four: A Look That Could Only Be Described As Murderous Rage_

* * *

Dick bolted to the kitchen when he heard the crashing of plates, as they collided with the marble table top. There was a loud chain of swearing — "Shit! Oh shit!" — and an accompanying voice of disapproval — "You must mind your language Master Jason!"

A pile of fine china lay in the middle of the kitchen; the tiny fragmented pieces of Alfred's salad plates. His adopted brother stood there, eyes wide in shock.

"Oh crap…" Jason gulped. "I'm so sorry Alfred…"

The official butler of Wayne Manor, complete with a dark waistcoat and tuffs of grey hair, only sighed deeply. "You do not need to worry. I'll get the broom."

Jason looked over his shoulder, grinning sheepishly.

"Dude," Dick asked. "What did you do?"

His brother leant against one of the counters. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I kinda ran into the table."

"Well done." Dick sneered.

Jason crossed his arms. " _Dick_." he said, invoking the more popular version of his nickname.

"Asshole."

"Dipshit."

Alfred's stern face loomed, a wall between the colourful insults. He cleared his throat and stated that he _really_ didn't approve of their language.

Jason chorused, "Sorry Alfred!" but raised his middle finger as soon as the butler had turned his back. Dick scowled, but decided he _really_ couldn't be bothered to dignify Jason with a response.

It was currently eight A.M. and he needed to find the keys for his motorbike. Which seemed to be easier said than done, since they weren't in the top three places he usually put them in (his jacket pocket, behind the vase of lilies on the fancy end table in the foyer, and on his desk).

And Jason provided zero help – using his impending departure back to boarding school as a crappy excuse.

Alfred was busy clearing up the mess, which meant that his mind would be occupied for another ten minutes. Dick had an awful habit of losing his keys, and the butler would only give him _another_ lecture if he discovered the problem.

Jason munched on a bagel, watching Alfred intently. "Dude, don't you have to go to school?" he teased, fully aware of his brother's problem.

Dick gave him the dirtiest look he could manage. "I _was_ just about to leave, when I heard the sound of you murdering Alfred's plates." It was easier to lie and distract. Divert any attention from himself, in the futile hope that Alfred wouldn't notice.

His adopted brother grimaced and almost dropped his food onto the floor. "It was an accident!" he protested. "How was I supposed to know that _today_ was the day Alfred was doing inventory? It's not as if you aren't any better, losing your damn – "

A quick glance to the right, led Dick Grayson to discover that his keys were lying on the counter, right next to Jason. His brother's guilty expression – mixed in with the stupid smirk – made everything much more obvious.  
Of _course_ Jason would be involved in the disappearance. His 'lack of care for other people's property' (Bruce's exact words) was one of the reasons why he'd been carted off to the world's most boring boarding school, on the other side of the country. One year in that place, and his attitude still hadn't changed.

"– Keys?" Dick finished off, scooping them into his hands. Jason's face was priceless – a mixture of horror and anger.

" _Uh_ …I guess you found them." Jason commented, blue eyes wide.

"Yup."

He scratched the side of his head, creating a series of rifts in his dark hair. "So…uh…have a good day at school?" he asked, bashful.

Dick only grabbed his backpack and shoved the keys into his pocket. " _Bonne chance_."

Jason frowned. "Huh?" It was obvious that he knew a fair bit of French – and the translation obviously had to make sense – but he didn't seem to understand why on earth Dick was saying that.

"It means that I'm going to get you, _asshole_. Watch your back." he threatened.

His younger brother crossed his arms, reminiscent of a stubborn brat. "Sure you will, dude. I'm leaving to go back to hell next week. Have fun."

Before he could retort anything, Jason darted out of the room. Alfred was still cleaning up, so Dick escaped from the messy scene. Through the foyer with the glass tables, flowers, and mahogany panels. Turn left and almost walk into the large doors that greeted any visitors.

Outside, near the prim and proper lawns that had unbelievably green grass and two rose bushes. According to Alfred, Martha Wayne had planted those, and nobody except Bruce was allowed to pick the roses.

The garage was the home of Bruce's sports cars, although at least one of them had been inherited from his father, Thomas Wayne. And in the ugliest, dingiest corner, rested the R-Cycle (although that name was private).

She was something of pure beauty. Dick had built it with Bruce when he'd been fourteen. A sleek and shiny bike, the colour of red ('Robin Red' was the official name of the shade) with an Italian leather seat.

But the feeling of freedom was the best part of his bike. When he rode it, the wind whipping through his hair as he darted through the cars and buses, nothing else could compare. That was the main reason why he'd always rejected Bruce's idea of buying a convertible. Nothing else could capture the thrill.

He sped out of the gates and onto the grey roads of Brookford city. The sounds of busy traffic attacked him from all sides, but he only sped faster. He made a sharp turn left, through the side streets and narrowly avoided a dumpster.

The route to Brookford High usually took ten minutes, provided that traffic wasn't too bad. The quickest route involved darting in-and-out of the main streets until he reached his High School. Then, he'd have to spend ten minutes looking for a suitable and safe place to park the R-Cycle before he could finally start his classes for the day.

Dick reached the building in record time – six-and-a-half minutes – (and, as an added bonus, he'd only gone over the speed limit once). Rachel was leaning against the door, arms folded, looking bored. She was wearing a _Nirvana_ t-shirt and blue jeans, clutching a chemistry book.

"Hey," he greeted, as soon as he'd locked up his bike.

Rachel gave a ghost of a smile and opened the doors. "Good luck." she warned.

The doors parted to reveal a large crowd of students fretting about. They filled the corridor – lines of people tightly pressing against each other – as they chatted excitedly.

Dick's eyebrows rose. School never failed to surprise him. "What happened?" he asked, but there was a weary tone to it.

She bit her lip and shrugged. "I'm not sure. From what I've heard, Amber had a panic attack."

He raised an eyebrow. They had five Amber's in their whole school and Rachel didn't really elaborate much. "Oh." he concluded, not really sure how to react.

"Yeah." Rachel summed up.

The next twenty minutes were spent catching up with Wally and his exciting stories about how his Dad accidentally set his grandma's quilt on fire last week. Gar munched on a granola bar ("they really taste disgusting though, especially when they're raisin flavoured") and Rachel provided a few witty responses.

Class seemed to fly by, but that was mainly because Wally kept him entertained during Gym with some (extremely crappy) jokes and a mock competition. It was only during lunch, when he decided to hurry to the bathrooms before he met up with his friends.

Dick turned through the corridors and observed the harsh lines of the dark words. The cafeteria happened to be on the opposite side of the school building, which meant that it took him ten minutes to find the boys' toilets.

When he'd finally reached the bathrooms, he was greeted by the colourful graffiti. The comments were exactly the same as they had been yesterday.

In the corner stood two sophomores, huddled together, staring at (presumably one of theirs) iPhone. Dick recognised the first one as Billy Numero, one of the sophomore soccer players. And the other one was Johnny Ranchide, the kid who spent more time in detention then in class.

Johnny snickered loudly, pointing to the wall. "Kory's such a whore. Apparently some senior paid her to have sex with him."

At the same time, a redhead freshman boy walked through the heavy door and made his way to the urinals, staring at the floor.

Dick slowly trudged to the sink.

Billy snorted, and leant against the wall. "She seems like the kind of girl who'd give a blowjob because she wants to be popular."

The water sloshed around in the sink.

A number written in sparkly blue sharpie was the next object they paid attention to. Johnny nudged his friend and said, "Do ya think the number's real?"

Dick silently guessed that it wasn't. Mainly because it would be _really_ trashy to actually put her number on the boys' bathroom wall. Then again, doing all of this graffiti wasn't exactly classy, either.

Billy shrugged. "Doubt it," he drawled lazily.

"Yeah, but a whore like her would write it."

He was confused. Did Johnny think that Kory had written her own number (or a fake version of a number that she pretended to be hers) on the bathroom wall?

Apparently Billy followed the same train of thought as he did because the blonde's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, you think Kory wrote all of this graffiti?"

Johnny nodded. "Sure. It makes sense — Kory was obviously jealous of Kitten so she wrote a bunch of shit about herself so that everybody would feel sorry for her. And then she'd become even more popular than Kitten."

Billy rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Dude, you've been watching too many chick flicks."

Dick wanted to laugh at their logic, but he kept silent, casually eavesdropping in on their conversation.

The soap dispenser squirted a blob of pink liquid onto the murky floor tiles, missing his hand by a few feet.

"Whatever man. Do you think if I call her she'll blow me?"

"According to the bathroom stalls, she will. Finally tired of the opposite sex not noticing you?" Billy teased, elbowing the black-haired kid in the ribs.

Johnny pulled a face and copied his friends' position, back against the wall, arms crossed, head forward. Boiling water trickled from the tap and splashed over Dick's hands, and he uttered a swear word in return.

"They notice me."

"Sure."

"The decent ones do. The makeup-caked, slutty bimbo girls who are easy, a.k.a _Kory_ don't.

The redhead boy looked up from the sink, teeth gritted. Dick blinked — the kid looked oddly familiar.

Johnny grabbed the phone and the audible dialling sounds were heard as he pressed the numbers. "Five, nine, seven," he chanted, reading off the wall.

Twenty seconds of ringing noises. With a jump, Dick realised that the redhead boy was Kory's younger brother. He had her red curls (although hers were more wavy, and his were extremely bouncy) and her freckles (but hers were more faint, and she had a smaller number). They both shared green eyes and soft features. The same slightly tanned skin, and both brother and sister were taller than most kids.

Which meant that her brother had heard every word spoken about her, and his facial expression conveyed one single emotion: pure anger.

With this realisation in mind, what the two boys were doing seemed _extremely_ wrong now.

The call went to voicemail and Kory's short message played. "Hi, this is Kory Anders. I'm really sorry but I cannot answer your call right now, but I will call you back soon if you leave your name and number!"

She sounded way too cheerful during the message, but Dick reasoned that all girls were hyperactive, giggly teenagers (Rachel being the obvious exception).

Twenty seconds later and Johnny had started to speak. "Hey baby," he leered, whilst the boy beside him sniggered obnoxiously. "I heard you're up for a quickie. If you need me I'll be over by the bike shed waiting for—"

"—Shut up. Don't be such an asshole!" Redhead accused, having swiftly moved from the sink to beside the two sophomores. His hands trembled slightly, and he looked absolutely livid.

Dick had an awful feeling that things were only going to go downhill from there.

Johnny straightened up, and he had at least two good feet on Kory's brother. Billy still lazily leant on the wall, the picture of boredom.

"Who are you?" Johnny asked, crossing his arms tightly. "You're not one of these creepy freshmen who crush on any slutty seniors, are you? Last year we had seven of them, and I really don't wanna deal with any more."

His tone screamed everything but light hearted.

Dick reckoned he had three escape routes. The dingy window on his right side was the most obvious, and the easiest. Then was the door — except that was blocked by the three other people in the bathroom. Option number three was necessarily an escape option per say, but it was an escape from the violence (which technically counted).

He'd done quite well from staying away from the Principal's Office. Blüd was a weirdo who only tolerated him because of his connection to Bruce, otherwise Dick would've found himself in detention ages ago.

But there wasn't going to be an easy way to stay out of trouble this time.

"Or are you her best friend or something? One of the few people who can actually stand the bitch." Johnny continued and Dick cringed. The situation was getting worse with each passing second.

Redhead scowled and glared at Johnny. He still hadn't said anything.

"Or maybe you're her boyfriend. But I don't know why the hell you would stay with her unless she's good in bed…" He trailed off, whilst Dick was beginning to move out of the way and spring into action.

Redhead's fist rose and connected with Johnny's face. "I'm her brother, fuckhead!"

The result was instantaneous. Johnny sailed backwards into the wall, whilst Redhead clutched his hand and wailed, "Holy X'hal!"

Billy charged forward and Dick froze. Redhead wasn't going to survive with both of the older boys. And Brookford High had a strict 'no-nonsense' policy meaning that he was still going to find himself in detention, no matter how many times he appealed.

He made up his mind that he might as well rescue Kory's brother. After all, it had been a while since he'd practised Jason's street fighting moves against a live target.

When Billy reached Redhead, Dick rammed his shoulder into the blonde's ribs. It hurt like hell, and Billy definitely didn't react as he'd hoped him to.

Redhead turned and grinned. "Thanks." But when he faced Johnny, a punch in the nose brought a lot of blood.

He winced. "Shit!" he called out.

Billy was ready again, and he clipped Dick's stomach. For a moment he was winded, but he gritted his teeth and slammed his body into Billy side,

Billy groaned and his head narrowly missed the sink. Redhead who somehow managed to dodge all of Johnny's attacks, shouted loudly,

"Thanks for helping me out."

It was hilarious how nonchalant he was acting, whilst simultaneously trying to beat the living crap out of Johnny.

But it didn't help that Johnny kept on trying to aggravate Redhead by taunting him and only increasing the amount of punches that landed on his body.

Billy groaned once more. "Asshole!" he shouted at Dick before chucking his weight onto him. And fuck, was he heavy.

Redhead was definitely having more luck, but he was becoming a little too hysterical. Johnny's teeth clinked against the wall and he yelled in pain, but Redhead didn't seem to care.

Which given the circumstances, wasn't _that_ bad of a response.

"Okay!" Johnny surrendered. "Fine. I don't care about your fucking bitch of a sis—"

He was cut off with another punch to the stomach.

Unfortunately, before Redhead could strike again the bathroom door opened and in walked the vice principal, holding a look that could only be described as murderous rage.


	5. five

_Author's Note: There might be two week break between this and the next chapter (as opposed to a one week break) because I've been really behind on writing and school has lots of work planned out for me! Plus I've started my volunteer work and that'll be taking up loads of my evenings. Regardless, hope you guys enjoy this! Beware of a fair amount of swearing._

* * *

 _Chapter Five: She Was Trying to Mimic R2-D2 from Star Wars_

* * *

It had taken two teachers (and a bucket-load of swearing) to tear Redhead off of Johnny. Now Redhead, whose real name was Ryan, was slumped on a bench outside of the Principal's Office, pressing an ice pack to his swollen hand. He was still scowling fiercely, but with less intensity than before.

"Thanks," Ryan said. "I really appreciate you helping me out back there. Sorry you're gonna get into trouble."

Dick shrugged, "No problem," but winced and placed his own ice pack back on his shoulder. He'd busted it after crashing into the wall, multiple times.

On the other side of the room sat Johnny (whose cheeks had turned black and blue) and Billy (who clutched a scarlet-stained tissue to his nose).

Dick counted the number of lines on the floor and tapped his foot impatiently. He hadn't been told a single word of what was going on, but they were presumably waiting for Blüd to haul his ass out of his office and give them a lifetime of detention.

"So, uh, what's going to happen?" Ryan asked.

Johnny jumped it, shouting. "My parents are going to sue yours for the damage you did to my teeth!"

"You deserved it, _asshat_." Ryan shot back, and Dick raised an eyebrow. Ryan was the most hot headed person he'd ever met (sans Bruce, but he deserved to be in a separate league, all by himself). Johnny seemed to do a good job of riling him up with a few words, something that wasn't going to help matters at all.

"Blüd's gonna give us a twenty minute lecture and give us a year's worth of detention, maybe more. But it shouldn't be that bad, _I hope_." he added under his breath.

Ryan didn't look very reassured. "Uh…okay."

It was pretty obvious from his reactions that Ryan had never been in a fight before. He had no clue what was going on. Truthfully Dick didn't either (he was only parroting from what Wally told him that one time he'd landed a detention for 'supposedly aggressive behaviour'). But since he was the senior, and Ryan was the four day-old freshmen, he was kind of stuck.

He folded his arms and leant back on his chair, and tried to look as nonchalant as possible.

The door opened and Dick found himself holding his breath in anticipation. A random junior came in, asked the receptionist for a copy of some forms, and disappeared again. The door slammed behind her and the receptionist glowered.

Ryan was picking at a loose thread at the bottom of his trousers. Billy's gaze was fixated on the floor. Johnny was uttering profanities and kicking over the trashcan. Before he could pick it up, Ryan raised his hand slightly, almost as if he was in school.

"Miss Hive?" he called to the receptionist. "How long is the principal going to be?"

Dick was surprised that he actually knew the name of the receptionist.

She scowled deeply, almost as if she was resentful of Blüd. Then again, Dick reasoned, the guy seemed like a bit of an asshole.

"My name is Mrs Hive!" she snapped, and Ryan withered back. Her pen slapped against the surface of the table. "And I don't _know_ how long he's going to be!"

If he weren't in a load of trouble, a middle-aged woman having a hissy fit would've been hilarious.

Her composition changed and she grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and handed it to Ryan. "Write down your name and what class you're in." Mrs Hive sighed slightly, looking frail, before turning back into mega-bitch mode. "I'm going to have to contact your parents."

Redhead looked the most terrified that Dick had seen him all day. "My parents are in Hawaii right now."

Johnny was grinning like a madman. "Mommy and Daddy can't save you now, _bitch_." he sneered. "the amount of shit you're gonna be in is unbelievable."

Ryan whipped his head to the side, "Go fuck off!" he replied, and then turned back to Mrs Hive. "You can contact my au pair. I have his number on my phone."

Dick untidily wrote his name with such atrocious penmanship that would make Alfred disappointed. He assumed it was pretty obvious that he was a senior but he wrote the word down anyway. The paper was passed to Johnny and then Billy, whilst Ryan quietly chatted with the receptionist.

Johnny continued to pull faces at Ryan, his lips curling downwards. The blond kid beside him had hands that were shaking and he nervously tapped his feet against the floor. He was sitting straight up, and when he wrote his name on the paper it went all loopy.

Eventually Billy blurted out, "Please don't tell my parents!"

Mrs Hive refused to respond, and snatched the paper out. Suddenly her fingers were jumping on the keyboard. She picked up the phone, dialled the first number and gave a complimentary glare to every person in the room.

"Hello, is this Galfore?" she asked.

" _Gavin_." Ryan corrected. "His name is _Gavin_."

She ignored him and continued to talk. "Yes Gareth. This is Brookford High School calling on the behalf of Ryan. He's been in a fight. We need you to come as soon as possible."

Some incoherent murmuring from Gavin's side. "I will see you in twenty minutes then, Gandalf."

Dick couldn't help it, he snorted at the end. He ignored the dirty look given to him and went back to counting the floor tiles whilst she rang up Mrs Numero, Mr _and_ Mrs Ranchide and most importantly, Bruce Wayne. When she reached the last one, her tone drastically changed to something almost… _almost flirtatious_. Dick's nose wrinkled in disgust. He really didn't need to watch another woman flirt with Bruce.

It was annoying how everybody treated him differently. Like he was some other-worldly god. Bruce enjoyed the suck-ups; he enjoyed the feelings of superiority and attention. Dick detested the former, but it wasn't as if anybody cared enough to ask for _his_ opinion.

"Of course!" she giggled, sounding like a middle-school girl with a crush. "I'm _so_ sorry for the inconvenience!" she gushed. Mrs Hive giggled again, and Dick wondered if she was going to ever remember that she was married and was an actual adult, instead of a fourteen-year-old child.

He was surprised that Bruce's secretary had let her in so easily. It usually took Dick about three times to get through to him. He guessed it was due to the fact that it was Brookford High School calling for the first time; they'd never really properly called Bruce before ever.

Bruce's spell lasted a total time of five minutes and seventeen seconds on her before she began to scowl again. She slammed the phone down, pressed another five buttons and began to speak really quietly again. Dick strained to hear the words.

"…I've called their parents Mr Blüd…at least a half-an-hour wait….four boys altogether…"

It was useless trying to figure out what she was saying, but he got the general gist of it. At one point it sounded like she was trying to mimic R2-D2 from Star Wars, but even then he wasn't quite sure.

Ryan was getting tense again, chewing on his bottom lip and being unable to keep his concentration on one thing. He'd gone back to his original seat next to Dick, and looked worried. Eventually he bit the bullet. "Really, how long is this going to take? Why can't they just send us back to class? At least we'd have something to do."

"This is probably some lame excuse, trying to get us to think about what we've done." It seemed that Billy was making a half-hearted attempt at being civil.

"Yeah, but why does it have to take so long?" Ryan pressed.

Billy shrugged. "I dunno. But I've already missed most of soccer practice now."

Eventually Dick gave up and found his copy of Animal Farm. English homework was going to end up with him reading a certain part of the book, so he might as well start. Before he opened the book, he remembered the random facts that Ms Carlton told the class. He scanned the first sentence, and exhaled slowly.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Kory scratched the side of her arm nervously, and navigated her way through the hallway, moving towards her locker. She clutched her Geography textbooks to her chest and bit her lip. Lunch had finally finished, along with her mandatory lunchtime session with Ms van der Eiye ("Call me May, _sweetie pie_. All of my students call me that.")

There was nothing particularly wrong with May, except that she was unbelievably sugary sweet and had a fondness for dessert-based dishes. She had really bright eyes that seemed to pierce into your soul and a very high-pitched voice that occasionally reached decibels previously unknown to humankind.

And as much as Kory tried to deny it, May's guidance consisted of comparing her own problems to much worse scenarios, which didn't help at all.

By the time she had reached her locker, the crowd of high school kids had thinned out, leaving small groups of students dotted all around. She tucked a strange of red hair behind her ear and looked for her Physics book.

"…a fight in the boys' bathrooms. Apparently some freshman tried to beat up two sophomores…"

Kory bit back a sigh. She'd never been a fan of gossip – it seemed rude and unnecessary – but it brought back memories of her and Kitten. They would always sit during lunch and discuss the actions of the people in their class.

"And Dick Grayson decided to help him. I heard they're gonna be suspended but he's definitely not. Mr Wayne will _definitely_ donate to the school and the idiotic freshman's gonna end up taking all the blame."

Suspension? That would be absolutely horrible, especially in the first week. She frowned, and then quietly shut her locker door. The poor freshman boy. At least her brother was okay.

But as she moved towards the physics labs, Kory began to fret about the possibility of Ryan being involved. His temper and the graffiti had continued to chafe throughout the week. And according to Jenny from Physics, (who'd only learnt from her ex-boyfriend) there was a lot of graffiti in the boys' bathrooms.

Kory shook those thoughts out of her head. It wasn't going to help her at all. Instead, she sat down in her seat at the front of the room and took out her notebook and pens and pencils. Five minutes later, Victor sat beside her.

He held a sheepish grin. "Hey, um, could I borrow a pen? I kinda left mine in the locker room."

She was surprised that he was actually talking to her and not staring and whispering like most of her friends. As she dug through her pencil case, he scratched the side of his head and caused the thick tufts of black hair to stick out awkwardly. As soon as he had the pen, he grinned again. "Thanks."

Their teacher, Mr Soto arrived ten seconds later, briefcase in hand. The dingy lighting in the lab gave the impression that his square-shaped face was grey. He was scowling, clutching a bunch of (what Kory assumed were) sophomore sheets and a red pen sat between his fingers.

"Class!" he called out. "We'll be studying refraction for the next two weeks and grades will be based on the quality of your experiments."

A loud series of groans followed shortly, and Mr Soto's hand trembled with anger. "I don't want that type of attitude from you!"

Kory had never had Mr Soto before (she'd only moved up into AP Physics this year) but he seemed like the sort of man who didn't tolerate any sort of rude behaviour from the class. He'd stopped trembling now, but he still looked _very_ angry, and that made her feel uncomfortable.

Vic turned to look at her, still grinning. She liked his smile – it was warm and friendly. She'd missed the amiable actions from her old best friends – she'd missed them loads – and apart from the occasional tug of the lips, most people only stared or whispered.

She shouldn't blame them; it wasn't their fault she guessed half-heartedly. But after spending her first two years in Brookford as the ten year old – slightly kooky – foreigner, a little part of her craved approval. A type of approval that nobody wanted to give her.

"Wanna partner up?" Vic asked.

She nodded, copying his expression. "Sure," she chirped.

He shuffled his desk towards hers, the muscular jock that'd had a growth spurt in sixth grade before everybody else had. Still wearing his letterman jacket from gym class and a white t-shirt underneath, scruffy trainers on his feet and a red backpack hanging off from one shoulder.

When he'd perched back onto the seat, Vic dug around in his bag. "So, you're Kory, right?"

She ignored the heavy pounding in her chest, and nodded. It took all of her effort to allow the word to struggle out of her tongue. "Yes."

"I wouldn't worry about Bill. Coach's gonna have a talk with that idiot – he shouldn't be pickin' fights with freshmen."

Kory was very confused. She tried to remember how the line could affect her at all, but no answer could formulate.

"Pardon?"

"Your brother," Vic prompted, as if was the easiest answer in the universe. He gave her a suspicious look: eyes narrowed, head tilted. "You do know, _right_?"

She shook her hair and strands of red hair spun around her head. Kory widened her eyes and bit her lip. "No!" she said, casting a worried look.

Vic's reaction was instantaneous. He drew back slightly and scratched his head. "Uh…"

She cut him off before he could say anything. " _No!_ " she repeated again. "What's going on with my brother?" And then, as if X'hal herself had shot the idea herself from the sky, everything clicked into place. The conversation about the freshman getting into a fight in the boys' bathrooms, the fact that she'd barely seen Ryan all day and the abundance of whispering and pointing.

Resting her elbow on the desk, Kory put her hand on her head and moaned softly, "Oh X'hal!"

Ryan was going to end up in a lot of trouble and there was nothing she could do. Her parents were still in Hawaii, securing the latest business deal of their company, but their au pair Gavin was still at home. The only other legal adult in their household was Kim, but she had classes and her own responsibilities to deal with. Kory remembered that the girls earlier had mentioned suspension and that reminder only knotted her stomach.

Victor Stone waved a hand in front of her face sheepishly and gave a nervous laugh. "I'm sorry. I didn't realise that ya didn't know."

Kory shook her head and smiled the weakest attempt of a grin. "No," she reassured, "I'm glad you told me…" She was inclined to say more, but she'd ran out of words and her mind was busy thinking up all of the repercussions of her little brother's actions.

He still looked mortified at the fact that he'd spilt the bad news to her, but she shook her head and stared at her notebook paper. "Okay…" A deep breath and then, "what should we do for our experiment then?"

Vic's face lit up and anybody could tell that Physics was no doubt, a passion of his. He began to describe the ideal experiment that they could conduct whilst she scribbled down quick notes and a brief summary of the mechanisms. He doodled a quick overview of the experiment.

It was nice to chat to somebody who didn't want to judge her. The loneliness had been seeping in from the past four days. Sometimes she would receive the occasional smile or the minute wave. Or somebody would give her the small nod of the head. But they didn't say anything, and their eyes didn't convey much emotion either. It was depressing, and the thought made her want to hide in her duvet until senior year was finished.

It was childish and weak, but she really was lonely.

* * *

Whenever Bruce Wayne entered a room, anybody currently present would stand up, widen their eyes and adopt a sugared façade. But Sebastian Blud seemed to be the only exception to that rule. As soon as Bruce shook his hand and flashed one of his charismatic smiles, Principal Blud's resolved seemed to grow stronger and his lips tightened. Dick watched with feigned interest at the meeting of two controlling, egotistical men with a passion for money.

He sat down on one white chairs and took a quick glance around the room, only to notice that there was nothing worth noting. It was bare and lacked any emotion; the room was an embodiment of Blud's personality.

Bruce smoothly sat down and applied the magnetic charm that the public of America adored. He presented his winning smile and calmly said, "Regardless of the unfortunate circumstances, it is still a pleasure to meet you."

Blud seemed unimpressed. He cleared his throat. "Richard was involved in a fight today. As you are aware, our school employs a zero tolerance policy and all involved will be punished."

When he was satisfied that Bruce understood, the white-haired man continued. "The severity of the injuries sustained are unknown, but the parents of Mr Ranchide may want to press charges."

Dick almost fell out of his chair, due to the absurdity of the situation. It was amazing how Johnny had lost only (two? three?) teeth and suddenly felt that he had the power of millions. Of course he had heard of rich brats, but within an hour, Johnny must have topped the list.

Bruce remained impassive, and for the thousandth time in his life, Dick wondered what he was thinking. He'd definitely _have_ to be feeling something on the anger spectrum, right? His guardian's ability to hide thoughts, motives and emotions really ticked him off. At times like this, it would be nice to have the tiniest indication of the type of lecture Dick was going to receive later on in the day.

Eventually he shuffled on his seat and tried to avoid direct eye contact with Blud. The old man was so dead inside that it was scary when he looked too closely.

"I think it would be best if Richard participated in school community service. The minimum amount of time required would be thirty two hours."

Dick tried to reason that thirty-four hours was the equivalent of seventeen days, if he spent two hours working after school. That equalled a minimum of three weeks and two days before he completed everything. As long as the work was something decent, he would be fine.

Bruce didn't protest and that was a sign that he approved of the punishment. Dick guessed that his reaction was a good one – it was better than having a furious Wayne or an extremely pissed Wayne. But that didn't mean he wouldn't be entertained at the possibility of a shouting match between Bruce and Blud.

And then came the disappointment: Blud droning on about how Brookford High had been teaching students for over two hundred years and how the expectations had never changed. Sebastian Blud had some scarily complicated beliefs about his idea of the perfect senior, and Dick only ticked three boxes out of twenty-two.

When Blud had finally finished, Bruce nodded. "Thank you, Principal Blud. I've already discussed Dick's actions with him, and we believe that this is the most appropriate form of punishment."

If the old man was surprised at this response, there was no physical indication.

Bruce continued, the words smoothly running off his tongue, and Dick leant back on his chair. This was a frequent occurrence – the talented words came and saved _the whole frickin' day_. And everybody went running off into the sunset except for Dick because he was the one who was always forgotten. Typical Bruce behaviour.

There was a beat of silence filled with suspicious looks from Principal Blud before he promptly stood up and opened the door. "I believe that will be all. A warning to _you_ :" he pointed to Dick, "continuation of this sort of behaviour will ensure that graduation may have to be taken at a different school." Blud turned to Bruce, nonchalant. "Richard will need to log any hours of school service with the school receptionist, Ms Hive."

Extra _unnecessary_ time spent with the most bitter woman ever? This day seemed to get better and better. And the warning he received was close to making this the best three hours of his life.

They were back into the waiting room, where the weirdest confrontation was beginning. A middle-aged couple, both the definition of _pissed off_ were screaming loudly in the small room. The woman looked suspiciously like Morticia from _The Addams Family_ but less sexier and more creepier. She had one of her arms protectively over Johnny, and it didn't take a genius to realise that she was his mother. Johnny's dad had a thick moustache and sickly skin – the hobo version of Snape from Harry Potter.

Mr Ranchide raised a threatening finger, and waggled it in the air as he spoke. "Where is the idiot that hurt my son?" he yelled. "I would like to see that little fu –"

His wife patting him on the shoulder halted his colourful choice of language. "It's going to be okay, Paul. We'll find him."

A hulking great figure came into view: a red beard, shoulders the size of tractors and a scar underneath his right eye. Dick had encountered some interesting people in his life (after all, the circus thrived on personalities like that) but this man was something special.

"I would be careful with what you say." The man warned. "You might accidentally end up on the floor."

Hulk was threatening Snape, who spluttered around like a crappy lawnmower.

Dick had to admit, Hulk was a force to be reckoned with, even if he'd only said two sentences.

Ryan was standing next to Hulk and the reasoning behind his plucky nature clicked into place. If Dick had known somebody as intimidating as the Hulk, he probably wouldn't have had any issues picking fights with sophomores. Hulk looked like a man who regularly competed in _some_ sort of street fighting.

Bruce seemed to have snuck through the war site and was currently talking to Ms Hive, the latter who was batting her eyelashes and giggling loudly. He really hoped that Bruce was using some of his 'godly charm' to reduce the punishment, but the chances of that were scarce.

"Did _you_ just threaten me? I will have my lawyers on you; they'll tear you to pieces!"

Hulk (Dick assumed that this had to be the supposed 'Gavin' Ryan had been talking about earlier to Ms Hive) suddenly turned his attention to Dick, who gulped nervously. He looked like he could dismember Dick with his bare hands whilst simultaneously playing the piano or something mundane like that. "You helped my Ryan, did you not?"

Dick forgot any words that were forming inside of his mouth and looked at the large eyes that were staring at him. "Umm…" he scrambled for an appropriate response. "…yeah?"

Gavin clapped him on the back, knocking any air out of his lungs. It took all of his balance to not crash down onto the ground in an irreparable heap of limbs. He used his hands to steady himself and sheepishly smiled.

"Thank you." Gavin said and Dick tried to place his heavy accent. It was reminiscent of a Russian tone but some words were pronounced with an entirely different drawl. In the span of ten seconds after the man had finished speaking and Dick had tried to use his detective skills to no avail, Bruce had maneuvered back to his side of the room.

He was dressed professionally with the traditional suit and tie, his sleeves rolled up to the top of his elbows. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair and then turned to Dick. "I think it's time for us to go back to the Manor," he remarked quietly. "Any concerns with that?" His voice held no emotion to it, and Dick struggled to predict his mood.

"Sure…" he replied, and then paused briefly. "But I needed to grab my Physics books from my locker; I'm gonna have to catch up with whatever we're studying."

Dick trudged back into the hallways filled to the brim with the deafening shouts of teenagers – unneeded reminders that he had currently wasted the last two hours of his life doing absolutely nothing. He elicited a few stares by the odd student, but most people tended to ignore him. Unfortunately he had yet to find any of his best friends, but the black-haired boy was secretly glad of that – he didn't have the energy to explain the whole situation.

By the time he'd reached his locker, most of the freshmen and sophomores had cleared, leaving the seniors and the occasional junior. His head pounded erratically as his fingers closed around the lock and spun the dial until his combination had been entered.

There was a flash of red curls, and a soft tap on his shoulder. Dick turned to the side and faced the least likely person he'd expected.

Kory Anders stood there, back straight, high ponytail and clutching an assortment of books to her chest. She looked astonishingly perky for somebody's who'd managed to fall of the social ladder on her first day. He couldn't believe how cheerful she was – if he tilted his head fourty-five degrees he would be able to read all of the terrible things written about her.

She grinned at him and tucked a strand of loose hair behind the ear. "Hi."

He blinked twice, before realising that she probably required a response. His lack of attention was due to a complicated combination of boredom and exhaustion, but he doubted that concerned her.

"Hi."

Her eyes were a pretty shade of green and they kept focusing on the ground. "Um…I…" Kory stumbled over her words slightly. "I heard that you helped out my brother earlier."

"Uh…yeah." For the past afternoon, his vocabulary only seemed to consist of filled pauses. Their whole conversation teetered on the definition of awkward.

"And, I just wanted to thank you. Whatever riled him up obviously meant a lot to him, and it was really sweet of you to help him instead of letting him get beaten up really badly." Her tone was the vocal embodiment of sincere, and he resisted the urge to blush profusely. Kory was making him out to seem like a hero, but all he'd done was stop one guy from attacking her brother, instead of having both idiots fight him.

She was leaning forward, wearing a semi-transparent top and one of her signature super short skirts, and it was _really_ distracting. "I hope that things turned out alright. I am really sorry if you got into a lot of trouble."

Dick shook his head and scratched the back of his neck. "Nope, I didn't really have any problems: only a few hours of school community service. I'll probably being cleaning up all of the graffiti."

It was out of his mouth before he could control it and he winced. He seemed to be damaging the conversation more than actually contributing to it.

Kory's eyes dropped downwards, and she looked really hurt, as she clutched the books closer to her chest. "Yeah," she replied, sounding more uncomfortable than ever. She brightened slightly, but he felt like he'd ripped out her heart and then sprinkled it on top of her – a sick version of confetti. "But it isn't _that_ bad. They let you listen to music."

He'd sorted of expected Kory to help clean up, but had never had any concrete proof. It made sense though – if anything like that had happened and the school didn't really do anything about it, he'd probably dress up in the middle of the night and sneak into the building just to get rid of it. A rubbish attempt at being a superhero.

"True." Dick admitted whilst he desperately thought of a civil way to continue the discussion without accidentally offending her. "I think I'm starting tomorrow, which is the perfect way to start the weekend." The sarcasm dripped through, and when she tilted her head slightly, he thought he'd really dug the nail into his coffin.

Then she giggled, and grinned. " _Absolutely_ perfect!" she joked, and then became all serious again. "Thank you though. It was glorious of you to help out."

Dick had never heard another teenager using the word 'glorious' without invoking an ironic tone. But Kory didn't seem to act like an ordinary teenager, and he wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or not. She didn't include a 'like' at the end of every sentence, nor did she strike himself as somebody who was extremely excitable over the smallest of things. From what he had gathered, she seemed very subdued, but that may have been because he'd forgotten to engage his brain-to-mouth filter.

Kory turned around and he managed to slip up again, despite all of his best efforts. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

Her lips parted slightly, but she regained her composure. "Yeah, I will see you tomorrow."

As soon as she was out of sight, he wondered that if he bashed the locker door against his head hard enough, that maybe the whole event was cease to exist. Unfortunately, that did _not_ seem to be very plausible and it would only add to his killer headache.

He quickly grabbed his books, shoved them in his bag, and darted through the corridor, hoping that Bruce hadn't been waiting for too long.


	6. six

_Author's Note: Posting this chapter shamefaced, because the next update will probably be in two weeks again. Blame school._

 _There are a few DC character easter eggs, plus the dude called 'Sawyer Fannon' which was my lame excuse at trying to make 'Fang' into a proper surname without totally weirding myself out/making it sound unnaturally odd. But yeah, I tried, I guess._

 _The responses on last chapter were overwhelmingly positive, and you guys are only reminding me why I love the Teen Titans community so much (except for the idiots who keep dissing/ruining Starfire's character to fit in with their own ships). I don't want to name ship names, and obviously this isn't the majority, but in the past week I've stumbled across 10 different fanfics, all of which portray Starfire as a jealous bitch or stupid bimbo, and every single one is currently being posted._

 _\- Valentina_

* * *

 _Chapter Six: She Could Have Kissed Him if She Wasn't So Repulsed By The Idea_

* * *

After researching extensively into the subject, it was decided that the simplest solution to get rid of the graffiti was to use a mild chemical graffiti remover and then paint over the walls. The remover would be able to fade the words so that when the new coat of paint was applied, the marks wouldn't show through.

There were seven of them helping out, but Kory was the only one who'd volunteered. Billy, Johnny and Dick were all required to participate in school community service, and the other three students had similar situations. She recognised the dark curls of Toni Monetti who'd moved from New Jersey last year and her best friend, Bette Kane, who was from Gotham. Kitten's ex-boyfriend Sawyer Fannon was also there, leaning against the wall.

They'd been there for an hour already, and Kory was extremely impatient. Time was being wasted, but May had wanted to give a half-an-hour introduction and then recited the instructions even though the method was very simple. It wasn't all May's fault, she reckoned, the others had taken a long time to arrive, but they had barely done anything.

Kory scratched the side of her arm and waited for May to arrive with the cartons of chemical remover. A quick glance at everybody else's expressions told her that they were all exhausted and bored. She was restless, filled with an uncontrollable desire to start working and never stop until everything was back to normal.

The silver haired woman appeared a minute later, with three heavy containers. "My, my," May observed. "We have many little helpers here!"

It was impossible not to feel unnerved around her. Her patronising tone made Kory extremely uncomfortable.

"Kory _dear_ , could you get the sponges and brushes from the janitor's closet? I seem to have forgotten them!" May said, and Kory nodded slowly. "You might want to bring somebody else with you. There are too many things for a small girl like _you_ to carry."

Sawyer sniggered underneath his hand and Kory shot him the dirtiest look she could muster. Toni seemed to hold the same reaction – she crossed her arms and frowned deeply.

The hot temper that had always controlled her had begun to stir again, and she was grateful when Dick interjected with a helpful, "I'll go with her, but I don't think she'll need any help carrying stuff."

May's face twisted into a grimace, but the movement was so quick that Kory wasn't sure if she had imagined it or not. Her pitch lowered slightly and she nodded. "Of course, but come back quickly, darlings!"

As soon as they were back in the hallway and out of earshot, Dick turned to Kory. "Did she just call us _darlings_?"

She giggled at his creased brows. "I think so. She usually calls me a 'sweetie pie' or 'honey,' so this is _not_ as bad. Once she called me her child."

Dick snorted loudly. "That would've been interesting."

"I believe she has an obsession with using dessert-based names. Apparently before she became a guidance councillor she was a chef. Amber's Aunt went to the same culinary school as May." The name of her ex-best friend brought a pang in her chest, but she dismissed it quickly.

Due to Brookford High's eccentric layout, the janitor's closet was hidden beside the stairs on the second floor. Terra had always joked that it was to discourage teenagers from hiding in there during classes, but she rebuffed that rumour when Kitten found out that she had a crush on Gar Logan from Algebra. Kory always found it disappointing that Terra never did anything about her crush, especially before she moved away to Florida.

He shook the door and groaned when it didn't open. "It's stuck."

This was one of the rare times when Kory was thankful for Gavin's insistence that she took gymnastics and general self-defence classes as a child. She focused all of her weight into her leg and slammed it against the door. There was a loud creak and then the door swung open, revealing the chaotic state of the closet.

Dick's eyebrows rose. "Nice," he complimented, and it took all of her self-control not to blush fiercely. Stepping inside, he scoured the shelves and coughed at the storm of dust. She followed quietly.

The room itself was the epitome of cold and unfeeling, with grey walls and concrete floor. Vents circulated icy air around the metallic shelving, which housed an assortment of equipment such as buckets, screwdrivers, nails and mops. Hanging behind the door were three identical copies of a navy uniform, with a nametag that read 'Paul.' There were also three broken brushes and a pile of shattered glass in the corner.

Kory narrowly avoided stepping on a spider, as she searched for the large sponges. She reached success when the top shelf trembled erratically and sent a pile of multi-coloured sponges tumbling on her head. Wincing slightly, and then picking them all up, for the seventh time that day, she wished that she were somewhere else.

Armed with twelve sponges and three buckets, the pair began to make their way back to the gym. Dick carried the buckets, even when Kory insisted that she was perfectly able to hold them herself – and it was more convenient to put the sponges in the bucket – which left her with nothing. She felt bad for not doing anything, but he'd given her one of those boyish and charming smiles and claimed that he liked it.

It was obvious he was lying, but she didn't have the patience to argue with him, however good hearted her intentions were.

"How many walls are there?" Dick asked.

The number was permanently etched into her skull. "Twenty-six," she said, her voice devoid of any emotion. "We'll be doing one a day because the chemicals are really strong smelling."

She could feel him looking at her, the usual mix of sympathy that every person in the school held whenever they happened to catch her eye.

"How many walls has the school cleared?" He sounded more subdued this time.

"May ordered the supplies on Tuesday, and we spent all of Wednesday and Thursday researching the most efficient way of managing the problem. Today's our first day." Kory could recall the hour spent, searching all of the methods in her free period and then afterwards discussing them with May in the afternoon.

"What about the culprit? Any idea who it was? It was definitely done the week before school started because that's the only time the doors are unlocked. Ms Hive told me that the Brookford Police Department have launched an investigation but apparently they've got nothing." He was so engaged in the conversation, eyes lighting up and hands moving around.

She felt a small smile tugging at her lips and asked, "Who do you think did it?" His response was not what she expected.

"Well…" he scratched the back of his neck like he'd done earlier. "…the graffiti in the boys' bathrooms was written in Sharpie and spray paint, but enunciated words were gone over several times in lipstick. And not any sort of crappy Wal-Mart brand – " Kory wondered how he knew the quality of Wal-Mart makeup, but realised that maybe _that_ wasn't the best thing to hone on in. " – but the designer version that Selina ends up wearing to every charity ball that Bruce invites her to. And according to Karen, most freshmen and sophomore girls in high school prefer wearing lip-gloss because it adds 'sparkle' or _whatever she says_ , and teachers aren't that immature so it'll be either a junior or senior."

He turned to her, and sheepishly grinned. "I, uh, haven't had much time to properly check it out."

Kory couldn't help it – she let out a small giggle. "Do you usually do this?" she teased.

Dick flushed red. "Yeah! I mean No! …Uh…it's really just something to keep me occupied in between classes. And most of them are simple observations."

"Simple observations?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

He looked up, defeated. "…Yeah?" He looked less embarrassed and more serious now. "But nobody knows that I do this."

Kory immediately understood his request, and nodded, and they turned left into the gym doors, where Toni looked as if she was going to explode. Her dark curls bounced as she paced around, Bette holding onto one arms as if she was trying to restrain Toni from spontaneous combustion. May was nowhere to be found, alongside Johnny and Billy who had also suspiciously disappeared. Sawyer was still leaning against the wall, and Kory speculated that he probably hadn't moved from that spot.

"You can't just say that! Do you know how much of an asshole you sound like right now?" Toni screeched, eyes blazing.

Sawyer shrugged, the picture of nonchalance. "You can say what you wanna, but it's true."

" _No it isn't!_ Oh my God, are you high or something?" The black-haired girl had a slight rough accent that was most obvious whenever she was angry. But her usual manner of speech seemed more dignified, and so it was very interesting to hear the gradual switch of voices.

Bette sighed and patted her best friend's arm reassuringly. "Toni, ignore him. He's just being an insensitive pig!"

"Oh my God, though!" Toni continued.

It was nice to know that Dick had the same concerns as she did. "Uh guys, where is May?"

The blonde teenager turned and pursed her lips slightly. "She found a spare bucket in one of the gym cupboards and she went to show the two guys how to properly apply the solvent. But that was like, seven minutes ago."

Kory breathed calmly. The temptation to ask Sawyer if he could go find the other boys was getting stronger by the second, but she wouldn't be able to deny the awkwardness that would endure as a result. He was the other half of Kitten that either loved or hated her, depending on either of their moods. His Dad owned a jewellery store and he was forever gifting her with the diamonds the colour of her eyes or her favourite shade of pink. The infatuation between the two teenagers confused Kory greatly – especially when he manipulated other people to make Kitten jealous, or vice versa.

Usually she didn't really talk to him – the foundations of his conversations were made out of her backhanded compliments or poor pickup lines. It had always made her uncomfortable whenever he had tried to ask her out when he'd reached the inevitable (but short-lived) end of Kitten and Sawyer.

But as Toni continued to rant, it was becoming apparent that Kory didn't really have a choice. She quickly scrambled towards him, lowering her voice slightly.

"Sawyer? We've only got another twenty minutes and May isn't even back. Please could you go and find her?" His head jerked in her direction, but she stood her ground.

He had one of those lazy smiles on his face. " _Yeah_ , sure. Hey, are you and Kitten still fighting?"

She really didn't need his casual question at that exact moment. If she was being honest, she didn't know. Kitten was upset with her, but she really hoped that they could resolve things quickly. And then she could put the whole graffiti things behind her, and restart her whole senior year again.

"I…I think so." Kory said.

"I wouldn't worry. Kitten's mom has been acting like a total bitch to her and that's why she's been so uptight lately." The fact that he blurted such sensitive information so loudly shocked her, but a quick glance around the area showed that Dick was trying to figure out what Toni was so riled up about, and Bette was still comforting her best friend.

Kory felt a pang of guilt – the relationship between Kitten and her mom was even more confusing than Kitten and Sawyer. Her parents were divorced, her Mom living in California with a new husband and a two-year-old daughter called Carly. They would go through months without speaking until one of them summed up the courage to pick up the phone, and then they were extremely close, until something came and tore them apart again.

She'd only met Mrs Moth (now Mrs Delaro) once, but as positive as Kory tried to be, nobody could ignore the arrogance that flowed from the middle-aged, golden-haired woman.

"Oh. Is she alright?"

Sawyer nodded, but he didn't look as concerned as Kory would've guessed. "Yeah, she's fine. Using the week to go crazy shopping again." He stepped closer, and she instinctively moved back. "That reminds me, I saw this beautiful emerald necklace that would totally match your eyes. You know what you can do, if you want me to get it for ya…" His hand reached for her hair. "Did I mention you look really pretty today?"

She was really uncomfortable now, but he'd backed up her into the wall and everybody else's back was turned away from them. Kory cleared her throat, and did her best to sound polite, even though her instinct was screaming at her to kick him and run to England.

"Um, thank you." Sawyer was even closer now; their heads were level, and she could have kissed him if she wasn't so repulsed by the idea. Not to mention that Kitten still liked him either romantically or sexually (Kory still hadn't decided which) and even if one ignored that, he wasn't exactly boyfriend material.

Plus, the last time she had kissed a boy it hadn't ended so well. Especially since the boy had currently had a girlfriend at the time (and still did).

"Like _really_ pretty, Kory," he said, dragging out the words. His hot breath against her cheeks made her ill at ease.

Eventually her options ran out. Placing her hands on his chest, she gave him a firm shove and an apologetic smile. "It's fine Sawyer. I'll go look for May myself. Um, it was nice talking to you?" she stumbled, ending up with a question rather than a statement.

He frowned, but she practically ran away before he could reply. Kory tightened her ponytail, reapplied a fresh coat of lip-gloss and quickly left the gym, hoping to find May.

She explored the labyrinth of corridors, peeked in empty classrooms, and checked the bigger science labs just in case (although there was no reason for May to be there). The words echoed around her head, taunting her – if she didn't find May, then there was no hope for removing the cruel phrases. Ten minutes had passed, and there was still no sign of the eccentric woman. Kory was beginning to lose hope.

By the time she'd found her in the chemistry lab – Kory didn't know why she was there or how she got there (probably some sort of weird magic). The session was over, and tears of defeat were brimming at her eyes. They hadn't done anything, and they probably weren't going to.

May turned when the redhead entered the room. "Oh, my little Star!" she gushed. "I know we didn't achieve much this hour, but we've begun working on our teamwork skills. And that counts for a lot!"

Kory gave a beaten smiled. "Yeah. Of course."

The rest of the evening consisted of the long walk home because Kim had been busy with her evening classes and Ryan didn't have a driving license. In the morning, Gavin had offered to pick her up, but she'd declined – an action she regretted instantly as she stepped into torrential downpour. The weather in Brookford didn't make sense: it was late August but it felt more like early February. Her bright pink umbrella glowed in between the splashes of cool water, and she absentmindedly twiddled it whilst she dug around for her phone in her backpack.

There was a quiet humming, and then a sleek limousine parked itself outside of the school entrance. Kory's eyes widened in surprise – she couldn't recall the school being used for any business meetings. As she deliberated over the reasons, the front doors slammed open and Dick Grayson emerged.

He didn't notice her, but for the first time that day, she was grateful. His lips were tightened in an ugly scowl – blue eyes narrowed, hands balled up into fists. He stormed past her like a tumultuous hurricane, groaning when he got closer to the vehicle.

"Really Alfred?" Dick asked, sounding furious. "Out of all of the cars Bruce owns, you went with the limousine? I get it, I'm in trouble, but he doesn't have to be such an ass about it!"

The response was a soft inaudible murmuring that was drowned out by the noises of rain pelting against the sidewalk. Kory assumed that she had been referenced at some point, because his head suddenly shot up and their eyes met. His countenance changed immediately – flushed cheeks and a sheepish grin, tugging at his t-shirt slightly.

He turned back to the limousine, muttered something imperceptibly, and then trudged towards her.

"Hey, Alfred wants to know if you want a ride. It's really bad weather and you probably don't want to walk home in it."

The sentence contained two truths, but Kory shook her damp hair. "I would not want to inconvenience you. It is fine."

"Seriously, Alfred doesn't mind. And, uh, neither do I." he added it as an afterthought; endearingly he turned a little red at the end.

She tried again, her line of sight drooping downwards in embarrassment. "I wouldn't want to get water all of your seats. Leather is really expensive." A little part of her scolded herself internally, for holding a tiny note of bitterness in her voice — it wasn't Dick's fault that her family's money had been having troubles.

He didn't seem to mind her rude tone, and instead chose to shrug. "Yeah, but I'm gonna get it wet too, so it doesn't matter."

There were underlying tones of good intentions in his voice — the black-haired boy really didn't seem to mind. A tiny sigh escaped her lips. "Are you sure?" she asked, feeling pathetic and needy inside.

His response was a grin. "Yeah. Come on." Dick grabbed her sparkly umbrella, pulling a face that was so disgusted that the urge to giggle overtook her.

"Glitter is not your thing?" she teased.

The boy nodded. "Nope, definitely not my thing. Neither is pink to be honest."

They swiftly moved into the car and she silently marvelled at the creamy leather and mahogany armrests. There were two pairs of seats facing each other but she felt that it would be awkward if they sat like that, and he had the same idea, so he shuffled to the far left and she sat on the right.

The screen between the front section and the second section parted to reveal an elderly gentleman with snow coloured hair and faint folds of skin on his face. Warm brown eyes that were accompanied with a suit and tie.

Dick motioned to the man. "This is Alfred. He's my, my, uh..." he trailed off and ended the line without a proper answer. "... _yeah_."

Kory beamed, but then controlled herself. "Thank you _so_ much for dropping me off!" she exclaimed.

Alfred voice was low but amiable. He had a very strong English accent. "No problem, Miss Anders."

"You can call me 'Kory!'" she called but he was already lifting up the screen again.

Dick said, "I wouldn't bother trying. He still calls me 'Master Grayson,' even though I insist on 'Dick' every time. It's this old gentry thing."

"Gavin uses the same thing to me, he'll call me his 'darling' in Tamaranean, even though the last time my parents called me that was when I was six."

Dick raised an eyebrow. "You're Tamaranean?"

There was an overwhelming sense of defence whenever somebody asked her that question, and she still wasn't sure why. It was probably because most kids had never heard of her home country, and chose to make her sound like an alien from outer space, instead.

"Yes. I was born there."

"That's cool. I've been to the Bahamas, which are right next door but never actually there. What's it like?"

Memories swarmed around her like an army of bees, and it was hard to focus on one. She didn't want to give any personal information away, so she stuck to the basics. "It rarely ever rains — a big difference from Brookford," she laughed. "We have more exotic wildlife because Tamaran isn't much of a tourist spot, unlike the rest of the Caribbean. And a lot of zorkaberry trees (they're kind of like blackberries, but sweeter) because they're our national fruit."

Whilst speaking Kory picked at the hem of her skirt and caused seven different threads to unravel by a few centimetres.

She looked out the window and observed the murky puddles that were forming on the sidewalk; they were a big contrast to the green foliage that peeked out of wired fences.

"Wait," Dick suddenly interjected. "Whereabouts do you live?"

"Vega Avenue, in North Brookford."

He nodded. "You're from Vega?" he noted, making the name sound like a neighbourhood instead of a street. Then again, that was usually the case in Brookford; people lived in such categorised ways that a different street could sometimes mean a wholly different lifestyle. "I'm up in Gotham heights which is practically the same neighbourhood."

"Gotham heights? That's right next to the park isn't it? The one with the statue of a bat."

"Yup," he dipped his head. "Bruce nicknamed it 'The Batman' because if you look at it sideways it kind of looks like a person dressed up in a bat-costume."

She'd never heard of something so weird before. " _The Batman?"_ she asked, incredulous.

Dick held the same approach as she did. "Exactly! I thought something more badass like 'Robin' would be way more appropriate, but it wouldn't really fit the whole bat theme." He was getting really interested in the subject, and it was adorable how engaged he was. Robin didn't sound as scary as 'Batman' but she didn't have the heart to tell him.

"It could be a girl statue with a name that barely anybody would guess. Like 'Red Star' or 'Starfire.' Something unexpected or quirky." Kory argued, still keeping the light tone of the conversation.

Suddenly the car came to halt, and the pastel-coloured walls of her house greeted the pair. To her utter delight, there was her parents' silver Maserati parked instead of her sister's less costly Mercedes and thousands of feelings of relief washed around. But then she realised the nature of the situation and dulled considerably.

Alfred had somehow snuck out the front and was opening the car door, reminiscent of her days back on Tamaran. Before her feet could touch the grass, Dick touched her arm lightly.

"Hey, I forgot to ask about your brother. How is he? I didn't see him this afternoon. The punishment wasn't too bad was it?"

She knew what he was asking her, but purposely chose to ignore the real meaning – a habit she had disgracefully picked up over the summer – and gave the blandest answer she could muster, "Ryan's fine," then changing the subject, "thank you so much for taking me home, it was really sweet."

And then a quick thank you to Alfred remembering all of her manners, grabbing her bag and praying that she didn't look too much like a drowned rat. Watch the limousine disappear down the road, bite her lip nervously and then smile because she'd found three people in the past week that didn't seem to want to ostracize her unlike the rest of the school.

Dick, Victor and Sawyer had all treated her like a person instead of an exhibit (although the last boy's intention's had been very confusing and uncomfortable). She'd had proper conversations with them instead of the tail ends of whispers or the beginning of rumours.

Reach the door, knock quietly, and hope that the evening was going to turn out better than the rest of the week combined had.


	7. seven

_Author's Note: I'm so behind on writing. I don't even have the next two chapters fully completed even though I've had ages to do them. I'm just giving you guys this chapter because it isn't fair to make you wait three weeks. But you're gonna end up waiting two weeks for the next chapter (and for that I apologise greatly). I'm so sorry. School keeps giving me essays, assessments, tests, trips and abundant amounts of homework._

* * *

 _Chapter Seven: It Was Impossible to Mishear the Horrible Comments or Rumours_

* * *

It was dinner time and Kory was being ignored. There was a thin line of tension present in every room that strangled any type of interaction between her and her parents. When she had gotten to the door, her Dad had opened it with a surly face and the interrogation had begun.

"Who was that?" he had asked, completely ignoring her non-verbal request for a hug.

After she had patiently explained that it was Dick Grayson's driver who had taken home, he held an air of disappointment and it made her feel dizzy and worthless. Anders weren't flimsy girls who couldn't walk home by themselves – they were strong, confident young women who were independent and (although he didn't say it, his expression read it) the opposite of the despicable young girl standing in front of him.

Her parents had always instilled a strong sense of self-sustenance inside of her, but it had crumbled very quickly after the first day of school. Kory was trying to act less fragile but it was impossible to mishear the horrible comments or rumours that contained everything from her short skirt to the new story that claimed she was considering becoming a prostitute as a career. Everything made its round through the school, and she missed all of the positivity she was used to.

People used to like her. They would pass her notes inviting her to parties or bonfire nights, greet her whenever she walked down the corridor and use every opportunity to strike a conversation with her. And Kory liked people. She liked receiving the notes, greetings and discussions.

Everything used to be so perfect, and then suddenly she had tumbled into an inky hole labelling her the "disgusting whore who totally would fuck anybody if they asked her."

Now she was curled up on the couch, half-absorbed in a nature documentary and trying her hardest to look forward to one of the loneliest weekends she had ever experienced.

Dinner wasn't going to be served until her parents had finished unpacking. She hadn't even had a chance to ask them how their trip had gone – although their early arrival was probably an important factor in the mood. Once every ten minutes, she would catch the flash of red curls snaking around the air in the hallway outside of the living room. Or she would notice the sound of footsteps thundering against the wooden floor.

Kory flicked through the channels and yawned softly. Rubbing her eyes, she watched as Ryan entered the room and quickly sat down on the chair nearest to her.

"Greet–" she began, but he quickly cut her off, raising a finger to his lips.

He spoke quietly. "Mom and Dad banned me from watching TV so don't say anything. I promise it'll only be for a few minutes; Gavin's kept me locked up in my room all day, only leaving for bathroom breaks or food."

His curls were dishevelled as usual, but there were dark circles underneath his eyes and he looked paler than usual. He didn't seem to be in the mood for conversation – but neither was she and so the unanimous agreement worked perfectly to both of their favours.

After five minutes had passed without any intervention from her parents (she didn't expect any, anyways) he shifted positions to something more comfortable and pulled a face. "World of Fungus? Couldn't you have picked anything more interesting?"

As soon as the words escaped from his mouth he suddenly looked really worried and his sentence did a complete backflip. "Um, but y'know, it doesn't matter what you wanna watch. World of Fungus sounds uh, uh, pretty, uh, cool."

It was pity again, the feeling that reminded her of her vulnerability.

She handed him the remote, shrugging, whilst the mid-episode adverts rolled in. "I don't mind what you want to watch, as long as it isn't Star Wars again."

Ryan gave a sheepish grin. "But Star Wars is the best!" When she crossed her arms tightly against her chest, and gave him the most unimpressed look she could muster, he wrinkled his nose. "Fine then. We can watch the latest episode of 'Arrow' since we missed it last Tuesday."

He changed the channel and began to turn the volume up when the door opened, allowing streams of yellow light to trickle in. Lucy Anders stood there – the picture of fury – with her arms on her hips and her long red curls trailing down her back like fiery swirls. Her bright pink lips were pursed, green eyes narrowed, chin held high in indignation. If her Mom hadn't looked so angry, Kory might've tried to rush to Ryan's rescue.

She seemed to soften considerably when Kory stood up, but there was an unfamiliar harshness to her tone. "Dinner is ready." Spinning around on her heel, her long skirt swishing against the floor, she promptly left the room and Kory scratched the side of her arm nervously.

Ryan jumped up from the couch and gave a dejected sigh. "Looks like it's dinner time," he observed, sounding like it was going to be the most unpleasant meal ever. If she was being honest, then it probably was. Kim still hadn't arrived, Gavin had left an hour ago, her own parents were on the brink of pretending that she didn't exist, and Ryan – the catalyst of all of this – was desperately trying to make light of the grim situation.

Kory trudged reluctantly to the dining room and her younger brother followed her closely, mimicking her pace. She sat down at one of the four dining chairs on the side (the fifth was reserved for the head of the family), Ryan quickly sitting next to her. It was one of the rare moments when her courageous and cheeky brother actually looked nervous. Gone was the cheerfully lazy smile, replaced with a slight frown.

The table was already set with pretty china plates decorated with small pink flowers and shiny cutlery. In Tamaran, dining was always considered a grand affair – and although her family current home had made them downsize, the rituals were considered the same, even when her parents were barely around. Summer evenings with Gavin were spent eating grilled cheese sandwiches with ketchup or mustard drizzled on the side, sitting cross-legged in the lounge, not cutting olive-filled pancetta bread with sharp knives, acting on her best behaviour.

When she was younger, she'd gone to her parents about everything. But ever since they'd arrived in the sunny city of Brookford, the relationship had deteriorated significantly and with everything happening at school, the strain was going to get worse.

Dinner consisted of an old Tamaranean pasta recipe with basil substituted for oregano due to the simple reason of the latter bringing out the flavour better. Kim was nowhere to be seen, which wasn't the most surprising observation, because Kory recalled her mentioning something about a college party that she needed to attend.

Her parents emerged from the kitchen at the same time, and the deafening silence in the room became evident. The sounds of chairs scraping over the laminated flooring filled her ears briefly, and then the silence overtook it once more. Mychal and Lucy Anders, the ever gorgeously charismatic pair was staring at their children with unreadable expressions; this only aided to the increasing of Kory's self-consciousness.

"We may start eating," her Dad's gruff tone attempted to break the awkwardness.

She didn't feel particularly hungry – her emotions were on a seesaw, teetering from anxiety to tiredness – but the redhead hastily shoved a pasta shell into her mouth and forced herself to chew slowly. Ryan didn't even bother to hide his discomfort; his fork was currently engaged in a dance with the rest of his food, accidentally splashing spots of the red sauce onto the table or spreading it around on his plate.

"Ryan?" Kory asked quietly. "Please could you pass the salt?"

He was so engrossed in the activity that he didn't even bother to respond, and so she was forced to deal with the bland aftertaste.

Her left hand gripped the side of the leather chair, squeezing in tightly. The usually rigid posture swayed forwards like a sail during a tornado, and as the sensations of nausea kicked in, the only thought her mind could process was how pathetic she was acting.

There were a million different places she could be at this moment, and yet she was suffering through the arduous process of having dinner with three other people who didn't want to be there either. She fixed her gaze on the vermillion walls which were seven shades darker than her Mom's curls, but only three shades darker than her Dad's. The picturesque scenes of three-year-old Ryan trying to eat the sand on Palamar Beach, or Kim posing like a model beside the Kathas Shopping Centre's fountain.

In a moment of utter carelessness, Kory bit the edge of her tongue, and winced in reaction. She tried to reduce the pain by slurping at her glass of water, but the looks of confusion she received were far too humiliating to even bother continuing.

She scratched her head, used all of her self control not to yawn and glanced at the clock. To her utter dismay, not even two minutes had passed. There was still a plate full of pasta shells and roasted peppers, and an untouched piece of ciabatta bread with rivulets of olive oil dripping down its side. And an avocado salad with mozzarella and tomatoes lay unconsumed in the middle of the hard maple table.

Ryan was starting to drum his fingers on his corner of the table, and Kory didn't have enough bravery to look in her parents' direction in case she happened to make eye contact with one of them and acknowledge the disappointment. The taps got louder, echoing around the room.

Kory heard the jingle of keys entering a lock, and the quiet click of the front door opening. Everybody's heads snapped in the direction of the foyer, and Kim slowly walked through, hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing a crop top and low waist jeans (something that their Dad was probably going disapprove of).

She groaned when she entered the kitchen, and dropped her bag to the floor. "Really?" her sister asked to nobody in particular. Then her tone turned to fake enthusiasm, mirroring an overly-exaggerated television character. "I just spent a full day of classes just to come home to be treated like a six-year-old again! Woohoo! Our parents are home. _Totally_ worth it."

Her mom rose. "Where were you?"

It was impossible to ignore the passion radiating from the older woman, and Kory watched the situation, tense. Her family was crumbling apart, into tiny irretrievable pieces and she had no control over the situation. She was powerless – doomed to watch the arguments rise and fall.

Kim rolled her eyes. "As if that's any of your fucking business."

Her usage of swear words wasn't going to resolve anything, Kory noted nervously.

"You need to learn how to manage your tongue, Kimberly; we do _not_ speak to our elders that way." Lucy sounded more patronising and scolding than helpful, especially when she addressed Kim by her full name.

"Yep," Kim nodded, sarcastically. "Back to Tamaran, home of the dark ages, where people are stuck in the thirteenth century. Except we're not in Tamaran, we're in America and we need to behave like an American family. Which means that legal adults – like me – are just as important as the elderly."

Kory's eyes widened, and she cringed internally. This conversation was going downhill faster than a skydiver. Her older sister had always immersed herself in the American dream, preferring to swap her nations traditions, stories and folklore for the more popular US legends.

Their mom sighed, but her lips remained fastened in a tight scowl. "Come and sit down. Dinner has already been served but I will get a plate for you."

The girl shrugged, and tucked strands of hair behind her ear. "I would love to, but I can't be bothered to suck up today. I'll leave that up to Kory."

The aforementioned youngest daughter, let out a small, " _What?_ " but was quickly shushed by Ryan who looked more entertained than anything. She bit her lip, fuming – humiliated, angry and frustrated with her sister's behaviour. Kim was stressed and loved to argue, but that didn't mean that she had to drag the rest of the family down with her.

Her mom held her ground, better than Kory expected. "You _will_ sit down and eat dinner with the rest of the family. Your father and I have not seen you in two weeks."

"And whose fault is that?" Kim shot back, venom dripping from her lips. "It's not my fault that you keep disappearing off to X'hal knows where. Maybe if you treated us like proper children, we'd treat you like proper parents even when you're the furthest thing from it!" Her voice was rising louder and louder, and Kory winced.

Their dad's fist connected with the table and the plates jumped in rebound. He was a deadly sort of quiet, moments from murderous rage.

"You will sit down, eat your dinner and stop acting like a spoilt brat," he instructed glowering.

There weren't many people in the world who could scare Kory – and Kim had an even smaller list. But there was something terrifying about the green, glaring eyes of Mychal Anders that looked like they would pierce into your soul. Combined with the deep throaty voice, and unbelievably high expectations, he was a force that couldn't be reckoned with.

Her eyes widened, and the oldest daughter of the Anders Family chewed one final time on her piece of bubble gum before rushing to the kitchen to spit it out. The sound of the small pellet of sticky substance hitting the metal bin was audible, and she arrived back in the dining room and hastily sat down.

The plate of pasta was passed to her, and she immediately shoved a piece of pasta into her mouth, daring to look up in defiance. Mom sat down again, and it looked like the room was going to lapse into silence again, until she started to speak. "Ryan? Why weren't you at school today?"

Kim failed at supressing a snort, and only stuck her tongue out when Ryan shot her a look. Kory – as much as she hating lying – knew that the truth was going to unravel itself at this particular moment, and there wasn't any way for her stop it.

"Uh…" Her brother began, but then suddenly decided to stop beating around the bush. "It's a funny story, like _hilariously_ funny…um…I've kind of…" he gulped. "… _y'know_ …been suspended for three days."

A silver fork clattered to the floor, and Kory shamelessly hid her head in her hands. Maybe if she ignored everybody, they wouldn't question her, and everything would turn out considerably better. Although that option was the least likely to happen, it was nice to pretend that there was a slim (yet impossible) chance.

"What? What in X'hal's _guktaal_ name did you do?" Her father was slipping into Tamaranean, which was never a good sign.

Ryan flinched at the harshness of the words. "I knocked out some kid's teeth. Oh and fractured his wrist." The last part was added as an afterthought, albeit a very casual and understated one. "Um…" his voice decreased in volume significantly, "there might be a pending lawsuit too, but I wasn't really sure if his dad was kidding or not. You might need to check with Mr Marcellus though."

Seven, deeply exaggerated (but not unnecessary) breaths, before a mere whisper. "Why did you do it?"

Ryan immediately fixated on her, and Kory squirmed uncomfortably. He didn't say anything, and that was a definite cue for an answer she was not willing to give. She felt microscopic, under the gazes of the other three members of the family. The door was the furthest away from her, and exiting was the coward's excuse.

He prompted her, "Kory? Do you want to explain?" with a kind tone that did little to help her mood.

"They were commenting about some graffiti written about me." She felt sicker than she had ever felt before. Her insides were on fire, her throat was dry and tears were pricking at her eyes for the umpteenth time that treacherous week.

There was a minute chance that her parents would leave it at that, but they didn't. "Graffiti? What graffiti? Where _is_ this graffiti?"

Too many questions that required too many responses.

"It's all over the school. Somebody wrote it just before school started this year."

Silence: the only constant in her ever-changing life.

To her utter relief and delight, she was left alone as Ryan was interrogated more carefully. Their Mom stood up again, her hand pressed against the table. "You fractured his wrist?" she fumed, her voice reaching decibels previously unknown to mankind. "How many teeth did you _knock out_?"

Ryan was suddenly fascinated with his fingers, and Kory didn't blame him. The receiving end of an Anders' temper was the most scorching place in Earth, hotter than X'hal's heavenly fire itself.

When it was evident that her younger brother wasn't going to answer, her mom tried again. " _Ryan!_ " she called out, short and sharp.

"Three," he blurted out.

"A three day suspension," Her resolve was beginning to wear. "A three day suspension within the first week of school! This will be on your permanent record!" She sounded hopeless, sinking down into her chair.

Back to the fire again, when their dad inclined her head. "Why did your school not notify us?"

Kory winced, knowing that her brother was going to let the name of their nanny slip and everything would erupt into explosions of anger and hurt.

"Because...Gavin came...and they told him..." he trailed off, the meaning sickeningly crystal clear.

Her dad turned to the two girls, glaring at Kim specifically. "And why did you not think that this is an important piece of information to tell us?"

Kim laughed maliciously, almost knocking over her glass of water, before it turned into crimson fury. "As if it's any of _my_ concern!" she said haughtily. "Maybe you should focus on figuring out how badly your youngest daughter had to fuck up for somebody to graffiti her name all over the whole school."

Kory's head was spinning, whilst the responses that had been shot, ricocheted across the room.

More screaming and shouting, Ryan occasionally piping up a response whilst Kim swore like a sailor. Her parents – usually respected, dignified people – were muttering Tamaranean curse-words between sentences, fists colliding with tables.

And tired little Kory was sitting there, pretty as a statue, soaking in all of the words like a sponge.

Her older sister finally gave a screeching halt. "I don't have to put up with any of your shit! I'm an adult!"

"You sure don't act like one." Ryan remarked dryly.

She ignored him and continued. "Every single moment spent in this family – who, by the way, treats me like I'm a six-year-old – only serves to piss me off even more! Why the hell is this _my_ problem? It all comes back to Kory!"

" _Kim!"_ The aforementioned girl wailed.

Kim crossed her arms, and an aggrieved expression flashed over her face. " _What?"_ she spat out. "It's true though." Her voice had gone suddenly quieter, "he only hit him because they were saying bad things about _you –_ stuff that they had only learnt from messages about _you_. It doesn't matter if it's written in black paint or black sharpie," she was getting louder, "it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. It's all to do with _you_."

With her final note stinging the air, the straight-haired oldest daughter disappeared upstairs, knocking over her chair in the process. Their dad stood up and exited, with their mom following in suit, leaving the youngest teenagers sitting in shock.

"So…" Ryan asked, with a nervous grin. "What's for dessert?"

His response was a small cry out as Kory burst into tears.


	8. eight

_Author's Note: I hate this chapter but I don't know what to do with it, so yay. Quick reminder that this is an 'M' rated piece of fiction, and I will continue using strong/harsh language and several sexual references. They're teenagers, not saints. Sorry for any mistakes, I haven't proofread this properly, because I've been really busy.  
_

 _However, on a lighter note, school has finished, so I actually have time to write a decent chapter (or two, who knows?)!_

 _love from Val._

 _P.S there are 'Star Wars VI spoilers.' And yeah, I don't know why I chose Star Wars as a film, it's probably because there's advertising everywhere and so it's always on my mind. :( Plus a few (pretty obvious) hints to certain romances that may or may not play out later on in the story._

* * *

 _Chapter Eight: Even the Golden Brookford had its Messy Secrets_

* * *

It was a shame that Bruce had left early to go to his office, because Richard John Grayson was still fucking pissed. If there was one thing he hated more than the snooty students of Brookford High, it was the fact that his guardian seemed to relish the fact that his adopted-son was one of those snooty students.

Asking Alfred to arrive in the most upscale vehicle that they owned was plain asshole behaviour. Dick was aware of how lucky people thought he was – "the stepson of one of the richest men in America," – but the cost had been the worst price of his life, and everybody else seemed to glaze over that fact.

And to a certain extent he was grateful, but when Bruce purposely made him look like a snobby brat in front of the rest of the school, the only result was a pissed-off teenager.

"I'm not hungry," he murmured when Alfred arrived at the side of his doorframe. Dick was sitting on the edge of his chair, leaning against the dark wooden desk. Homework was scattered around him like snow; not a single sheet had been filled in or completed.

Alfred made a sound of displeasure and stepped into the room. "Master Jason is most insistent on having breakfast right now and wants him to join you," he said and Dick felt a tiny bit bad. Jason was leaving tomorrow and wouldn't be back until Christmas; he probably wanted some company.

He faltered slightly, but then his stubbornness kicked back in. "Well then he can eat alone."

At that moment, his stomach decided to rebel against every previous statement, and the boy scowled. It growled loudly; a miserable reminder of the lack of food he had received since last night's dinner. His butler picked up a stray book that had found itself on the floor. "I suggest that perhaps you reconsider your decision."

No amount of coaxing was going to bring him out of his stupor until Alfred mentioned golden hash browns, and he found himself walking through the large corridors of Wayne Manor until he reached the dining room. The Manor had two: the latter of which was barely used unless Bruce was entertaining guests or hosting one of his boring cocktail parties. Dick preferred the smaller one with its oak panelling and warm lighting.

The variety of breakfast seemed to be infinite with four types of toast, twelve flavours of spread, twenty different cereal brands (even though on the rare times that somebody _did_ eat cereal, they usually ended up having the same type every time), plus a selection of different cuisines (English breakfast being his obvious favourite).

Jason was already shoving spoonfuls of soggy cornflakes into his mouth, giving a small wave when Dick sat down.

"Hey," he said through mouthfuls. "do you wanna try out Fallout 4 after lunch? Bruce got us an exclusive copy before it hits store next week."

The older boy shook his head and elicited a stare from Jason. "Can't. We're having a movie marathon at Gar's house."

Jason did a pretty decent job at masking his disappointment. "Whatever," he dismissed. "You girls can have fun watching chick flicks all night whilst I perfect my kill shot."

He loaded his plate up with a fried egg, hash browns and beans. The yolk dribbled on the side of the plate and he used one of the silk napkins to wipe it off.

"I think we're watching Star Wars." Dick finally argued.

His younger brother clapped his hands excitedly. "The movie you've _never_ seen before, right?" he teased, jeering when he was greeted with a scowl.

"Whatever _Jase_."

"You don't have to call me that." Jason complained, but Dick was already reaching out to ruffle his hair.

"Okay, I won't, _Jay-bird_."

"Asshat."

"Dipshit."

A large exaggerated cough halted their _extremely polite_ conversation. Alfred was standing at the doorway, radiating displeasure at their name-calling. He harrumphed loudly when they apologised.

"Sorry Alfred!" Dick was the first to speak up, swallowing a mouthful of warm creamy potato. He appreciated that Alfred Pennyworth – the man who made the best food on planet Earth (apart from his Mom, but he didn't want to go down that road right now) – made his breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

"Hey Alfred?" Jason spoke up suddenly. "Do _you_ wanna play Fallout 4 with me?"

Dick snorted in disbelief: he'd spent the first three years in the Manor trying to convince the butler to play video games with him, and when he _had_ reluctantly played, most of it was spent criticizing the lack of plot.

The butler paused, and Dick accidentally flung a bean off of his fork and onto the table. "Perhaps after lunch," he suggested.

That was surprising, Dick noted, then decided that it was fair since they weren't gonna see the youngest child of the family until Thanksgiving at least. Still, it was a _little_ annoying that middle school consisted of solo playing.

Jase scratched his nose, and flicked a cornflake at his older brother's face, but it was avoided by several inches. Dick resisted the urge to sneer — his aim still needed a little work.

"Nice try." he congratulated.

" _Nice try_." Jason mimicked, his face scrunched up. "You're sounding more and more like Bruce everyday. _Nice try — but work harder this time!"_

He'd gotten over his anger at Bruce for the most part, but hearing his name made Dick ball his hands into fists and glare fiercely at the unsuspecting boy beside him. Jase didn't seem to notice, which was fine.

"D'ya know what time it is?" His brother changed the subject, looking around the room for a clock.

Shrugging, Dick scanned the room for the butler, but Alfred had already disappeared into the kitchen.

"Probably nine AM by now." He stretched and yawned loudly. No matter how hard he tried, he'd never be able to catch up on a full nights sleep. It was infuriatingly exhausting.

He blamed in on paranoia. His dreams were bazaars of wonky people and his parents falling. Sometimes school would affect them. Like last night, he imagined that _his_ name had been graffitied around the school (as opposed to poor Kory's) and the effects had ended up very skewed from reality.

"Ugh," Jason complained. "I'm already bored. How am I supposed to survive the rest of the day?"

"Playing video games?" Dick suggested. "Or you could pick up a book."

Jase sniggered, hitting the table. "Uh _,_ no thanks. Studying for losers."

"Says the guy who's failing Algebra _and_ Geometry."

His eyebrows furrowed, "How did you..."

"They send out a physical copy, as well as a digital copy. It came in the post ages ago."

The black haired boy groaned. "I swear to God, there's no fucking point in hiding stuff from you. You'll just find it out."

Dick grinned, proud. "It's not that hard, man. You just have to pay attention because — "

" — the clues are all around you," his brother finished, mockingly.

He'd never realised that he'd said that so many times that Jason knew it off by heart, but it was the most basic rule in the book. People never focused on the clues that surrounded them — they were too busy running off. But even the littlest of objects gave the biggest of hints.

And body language was a dead giveaway too. Like his baby brother's: crossed arms; shoulders angled away; eyes aimed downwards. It was obvious that he didn't like the path of the conversation or where it was heading.

Alfred, on the other hand wasn't as obvious, but his lingering gazes and even the direction his feet were pointing in, notified Dick of his true feelings towards a scenario. Bruce was even harder to figure out, and a lot of the time it was a hit-or-miss.

With breakfast finally finished, Dick rose up and before he could stop him, Alfred had whisked away his plates into the sink. His aim was to finish off any homework this morning, grab a quick snack for lunch and arrive at Gar's house before 2, which was easier said than done because he hadn't touched a single piece of work he'd received, since Friday morning.

Contrary to popular belief, Dick sometimes liked to work. It was an activity that gave him full control, and the routines he'd created tended to give a sense of comfort when everything spiralled out of control. But at moments like this, when the number of hours he'd slept was smaller than six, it was the worst idea ever.

Chemistry didn't take long: an isotope equation sheet with a handful of easy questions to round it off. It was a shame that their teacher, Mr Chang spent more time discussing his failed attempts at working with Xenothium instead of actually teaching the students. Otherwise they would've had enough time to finish this sheet in class instead of it being set as homework.

The clock hanging in his room read fifty minutes past nine, and Dick chucked a paper ball at it. It hit perfectly and sent a ripple of shudders; the black clock swayed on the wall and the ball landed neatly on the floor. He considered throwing a pencil at it, and then decided against it.

Algebra took longer because the spontaneous douchebag that was their teacher had given them three whole pages from the textbook to answer. The fact that each question had seven parts to it didn't help. Stupid quadratic equations.

He put his head down and did his best to keep the equations as neat as possible, whilst simultaneously tapping his fingers against the table.

As soon as he was finished it was a book report for English, two sheets from Physics and finishing a lab report for Biology. He was losing focus again, interested in his red walls and the paper clips on the table.

Half an hour later, he was munching on an apple and fighting the barrage of incoming yawns. Twenty minutes after that he'd succumbed to the need of music and had some random playlist playing on in the background.

Alfred kept popping his head around the doorway, probably to check up on him. Which was strange, but it was probably a habit ingrained when Dick had first arrived in the Manor, a nine year old orphan lost between the chandeliers.

The song changed and he ticked off the last project in a red pen.

It was twelve PM and sunlight was trickling into the room like ribbons. He scratched the back of his neck and quickly logged onto his laptop.

Dick had been thinking a lot about the graffiti incident, and after he'd spent Friday evening subtly checking it out, more clues were unravelling.

Like the stroke of the letters. There were three types: curly slanted forwards; thick bold letters that had harsh lines; and really thin words that were tall with tiny 'o's and 'a's. It was pretty obvious that there was more than one culprit because the handwriting was so distinct, that it would've taken a very talented person to recreate it (and even then, traces of their usual handwriting style would still slip in).

He had a few rough notes about the suspects, like the fact that two of them were left handed, and one of them dotted all of the letter 'i's with lopsided circles. And how the boys' bathroom graffiti was really rushed because there were extra unnecessary lines on some of the letters, and one of the phrases even missed out two letters.

There was a massive pool of suspects to choose from (and that was only the senior and junior pile). If any of the suspects turned out to be freshmen or sophomores, he was utterly screwed.

He'd only managed to scribble down a few observations when Alfred came in again, requesting his presence for lunch. Dick wasn't even that hungry, but Alfred had made tomato pasta with basil on top of it, and it tasted delicious. Jase wasn't there, and the weary butler had muttered something about him locking himself in his room to commit "unspeakable acts." Thank goodness Dick had eaten by then, otherwise he would've been put off his food. He _really_ didn't need to hear about his brother's masturbating habits.

* * *

Gar's house was a twenty-minute drive away. It was hidden in a canopy of drooping trees and empty buildings with smashed windows. The seedy part of Brookford with its tyre-snatching teens and single Mom's addicted to alcohol. Drugged up teens that weren't going to be given a proper chance, despite their best intentions. Even the golden Brookford had its messy secrets, and this was the dirtiest.

Wayne Enterprises had been trying for ages to fund a rehabilitation program to help the kids trapped in this area, but it had always fallen through before any real help could happen. Bruce was a firm believer that these people could be helped – they needed the help, but even _he_ was having trouble solving this problem.

Past the roundabout with its cracked bottles, smashed into thousands of cracked glass pieces. A fourteen-year-old girl with a cigarette draped out of her mouth. Empty wide eyes that looked so dead inside.

His motorcycle sped up, and after a few sharp corners, he was outside the peeling walls of Gar's house. Wally's car (dubbed the _ever_ original 'Speedster') was there, and despite their differences, he'd picked up Rachel too because they lived fifteen minutes away from each other ("Not far enough," Rachel had retorted when she'd first found out).

Wally opened the door, which wasn't surprising. He was wearing a Flash t-shirt – his favourite t-shirt – and weirdly enough, flip-flops. But Dick had given up commenting on his best friend's choice of odd clothing.

"Dude!" Wally greeted, motioning to the spacious living room. "We have food galore!" he exclaimed, grinning like a madman.

Stacked in the corner were piles upon piles of chocolate bars, crisps, bags of salty popcorn and crates of doughnuts. It was a junk food lover's heaven; food oozed out and the sickening smell wafted over from the corner. Even with his winning powers of self-restraint, Dick's nose wrinkled ever so slightly, and he hoped that it wasn't too obvious.

Gar emerged from the doorway, followed by a quiet Rachel whose face was the picture of disgust. She was already clutching a steaming mug of tea, obviously intending to get a quick caffeine fix before the marathon was starting. Usually she drunk chamomile, but from the small tugging at her lips he guessed that it was the green tea Gar always bought especially for her.

He was always doing little things for her, keeping her as comfortable as possible, with direct jabs and teasing that muddled up any emotions. It was obvious that Gar liked Rachel, but the group had yet to find any evidence showing that she felt an inkling of the same emotions, and he felt bad for his friend.

Dick's own experience with unrequited love had been a wonderfully horrible rollercoaster ride. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure what it was, but there was still this dull ache in his chest from when Babs had been truthful, and he'd discovered that she didn't like him the way he liked her. And then it'd been an awkward goodbye party before she went to college, leaving a confused and hurt Dick Grayson ready to start his junior year.

Thinking about that made his head hurt.

"Dude," Gar acknowledged, making his way to the small TV sitting at the centre of the room. "Is everyone here?"

The only girl in the group let out a sigh of frustration, and the flash of hurt on Gar's face was evident. Wally was already digging through the food and Rachel was positioned in a way that meant she couldn't actually see the blond boy's expression.

Wally's head poked up, and he nodded like an overexcited puppy. "We're all here, and I'm totally stoked for hot Princess Leia!"

He bounced over to the couch and almost crashed into Rachel, whose glare looked like it could send him to Hell. Dick followed in pursuit, sitting on the end of the sofa beside her. She shuffled to avoid falling forward, and crashed into his side instead.

"Sorry," she muttered, and flushed red.

Dick shrugged, unbothered. "No problem."

Gar fiddled around with the buttons on the remote and finally the screen switched on. But before he could start to play, Wally cried out, "Wait!"

"Why?" Gar asked sounding more irritated than usual. Dick chalked it off to Rachel's stroppy behaviour from earlier, seeing as that was the only plausible reason.

"What order are we gonna watch the films in?"

"Uh? Starting from Episode I?"

Dick shook his head. "Watch them in the order they were released. Start with Episode IV and finish with Episode III."

The redhead smirked, "Wrong!" and imitated the sound of a buzzer. "We'll watch Episode IV and V, then watch I, II and II as a sort of flashback to Darth Vader's life, before circling back to VI to see Luke's final confrontation."

Rachel muttered, "That sounds like the worst idea ever," but they all unanimously agreed to ignore that comment.

As soon as the screen had flickered to life again, it wasn't that hard to become engrossed in the movie. Even Rachel _Roth_ (whose existence solely depended on keeping an Oxford world classics book by her side) stopped turning the page of _Lolita_ , when Yoda died.

It was only when the first movie had finished, did he notice what was going on. Gar wasn't even paying attention to his favourite movie franchise; he had disappeared to the kitchen. Rachel was pressed into his own side, her head comfortably resting on his shoulder and sitting on the floor, mourning the loss of his Cheetos was Wally.

He gave her ten seconds to notice, but she made no indication of moving. Her hair tickled his neck and she seemed to snuggle against his arm.

"Uh, Rachel?" he called out, nervously.

She looked up, face mere inches away from his, and turned red again. "…yeah?"

There was plenty of room still left on the couch. "Do you want some more space?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. It just about worked.

"Yes please." and her face stayed rosier than usual, whilst she quickly scrambled to the other side of the couch. A beat of silence passed before Gar, stonily faced, came back into the room. Wally was still crumpled up on the floor but he stepped over him and slumped on the couch.

Finally the redhead looked up, totally ignorant of the situation at hand. "Aren't we gonna watch the next one?"

Rachel suddenly looked more tired than usual and she rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. "I'm tired, and not really interested."

At least her honesty was refreshing.

Gar crossed his arms, "Typical," he muttered quietly.

"Huh?" Rachel asked, but he shook his head.

"Nothing."

Wally shot Dick a look that read something along the lines of _oh-no!_ and rushed to do something to stop the argument. "Guys," he said, "I think we should start the movie."

"Doesn't bother me." Gar sarcastically added.

"What's your problem?"

The blond looked up, eyebrows raised, before narrowing his eyes again. "Nothing," he replied with a tone that indicated _everything_ was the problem.

Crossing his arms, Wally gave one last look of before switching his attention back to the TV remote.

"I don't even like Star Wars." Rachel's helpful input caused the redhead to turn around.

" _What now?!"_ he asked, before slapping his hand over his mouth. But that didn't reduce the seventy-sword glare that was being sent his way, as she stood up abruptly and went to the kitchen.

Dick sunk further into the couch. Things were getting worse.

"Great." Gar nudged Wally mockingly. "Great going Wally. Make things worse why don't you?"

"At least I'm not the one following her like a lost puppy."

"Why do you have to be such an asshole?"

Finally done with all of the petty fighting Dick switched the movie on and the pair silenced immediately. But it was a temporary distraction, and there was no doubt that the fighting was going to start again. And Dick wasn't entirely sure how to handle it, since Rachel still hadn't come back after ten minutes (plus she'd been acting weirdly) and Gar still hadn't relaxed into the flow of the story.


	9. nine

A _uthor's Note: Shoutout_ _to_ r0bstarfan13 _for their sweet message! Happy Valentine's Day! This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but whatever. Um, I don't really have anything else to say, but yay the chapters are getting longer._

 _ps: tiny bit of angst in the middle, cutesy bit of fluff at the end, awkward friendship problems throughout (but that's a given in this story)._

* * *

 _Chapter Ten: He Was Just A Friendly Teenage Boy_

* * *

"So Kitten has some sort of loose screw in her head," Wally pointed out, hiding his sniggering behind the back of his hand. Dick glared at him fiercely, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes – attempting his best imitation of Bruce. Wally didn't look phased for a moment, before his eyes widened and he cowered away, the laughter dying down.

"Her brain's probably filled with them," Rachel suggested, readjusting her black t-shirt so that it hung more loosely around her hips.

When Garfield was the only one to laugh, he sent Dick two looks: the latter bordering on plain desperation. The heir of Wayne Enterprises managed a small chuckle, but his mind was focused on vehemently trying to stop his skin from crawling. Kitten was pretty – he'd give her that – but she'd learnt no indication of personal space, and her attempts at being 'cute' (or even 'sexy,' he shuddered) were more invasive than anything.

Rachel caught on immediately, and he put that down to her freaky sixth sense of being able to sense emotions of people. Which, according to Dick's detective skills, didn't add up since she was completely oblivious to Gar and his attempts of expressing his romantic attraction to her. Regardless, she gave him a sympathetic smile and subtly inches closer (although he didn't really acknowledge either).

Wally unclasped his hands together and stretched them outwards, before scratching his freckled nose. There was a guilty look on his face. "I kinda wanna see how things play out," he admitted, "but I feel slightly bad. I mean, the girl's not even going to know what's coming to her."

"She _did_ kiss her best friend's boyfriend," Rachel pointed out, and it was evident that there was no concern coming from her side.

Dick only spent the time trying to remember the scene, trying to memorise every tiny detail. He'd definitely accidentally glanced at _some_ sort of intimate moment, and all it did was frustrate him, and he wasn't exactly sure why. It was probably because he'd started to consider Kory as an actual friend, and her skewed morals had completely ruined everything. Or maybe it was because she seemed actually genuine, and it turns out that her niceness was probably one of her masks.

Jumping to conclusions was always the biggest mistake a detective could do, and Dick tried not to fall into the trap. But it was pretty tempting.

"Yeah," Gar shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "I mean no offence or anything, but that's like the number one rule of any friendship code."

Shrugging, Wally looked to his best friend for some sort of backup, but Dick was busy glaring holes into his sandwich, mentally trying to sort out his problems. The conversation continued, but Dick tuned it out. The arguments turned into little buzzes of sounds. Eventually he drained half of his water bottle, chugging the water down while he searched the compartments of his mind.

His fingers slipped and the bottle smashed into the table, water seeping out. "Fuck!" he called out, not caring who heard.

The arm resting on the table had the entirety of its sleeve soaked. He groaned loudly and the outcries of his friends began to focus in again. The sharp tone of Rachel's words, the higher-pitched yelp coming from Gar's corner, and Wally's eloquent string of curse words.

Picking up the bottle, Dick uttered another swear under his breath. "Sorry," he apologised, feeling more embarrassed than concerned about the mess.

Wally shook his head, "It's fine," he smiled, "but you're the one who gets to ask for the paper towels."

Dick didn't mind doing that, since the lunch lady, Abigail Hunkel, actually liked him (even though she wasn't as fond of his adopted dad). Her eyes were already twinkling when he reached the queue, possessing motherly qualities that meant most students adored her. He opened his mouth to ask, but she only passed him the towels and winked.

Mopping up the mess, Dick scowled whilst the conversation resumed. He was extremely angry at himself, for refusing to believe the graffiti. After all the time he'd spent convincing himself that Kory was a perfectly decent human being, for her to go around and cheat with her best friend's boyfriend of all people stung his head.

He was disappointed in her, and disappointed in himself as well. Contrary to popular belief, Dick found it hard to keep close emotional bonds with people, what with his hectic lifestyle and overbearing past. He didn't let many people past his walls (with the exception of Donna, Roy, Garth and the three people sitting on his table). And even then, he'd barely spoken to Garth (because he'd been focusing on finishing his swimming competition); the former three went to a different school and although Dick knew everything about those seven people, they barely knew anything about him.

"…you do realise that you've finished cleaning up the mess, right?" Rachel's quiet voice came into focus, breaking his mental silence, as her hand rose up to land on his shoulder.

It was true – his hands were continuing to rub the damp towels against the table even when there wasn't any remaining moisture left.

Dick lifted the towels away, too occupied with his thoughts to even fake sheepishness. "Thanks," he muttered sounding emotionless, before dumping the rubbish away into the trashcan.

They were all staring at him now, and he could practically hear their thoughts: they were written all over their faces. Gar had that lazy frown of concern; Wally possessed a grin that was entirely fake; and Rachel's eyes were widened in concern. He snapped out of it, rolling his eyes playfully and pretending that his attention wasn't hiding somewhere else.

It worked for the two boys who brushed it off, but Rachel didn't look convinced. She'd always singled him out, expressing her unease and making sure that everything was okay. But it never worked both ways – whenever he noticed that she was upset, his friend would close up immediately, almost as if she refused to feel anything.

He stumbled back into his seat, but not before dumping the remnants of his soggy meal into another trashcan. Lunch had barely started but he'd lost his appetite and there was still a dribble of cool water running down his skin. He wiped it off, just in time to catch the beginning of another conversation.

"I'm having a party next Saturday," Wally said, pumping his fist into the air. "Mom and Dad are going on a weekend trip and won't be back 'til Monday which means I have the house free for three days! You guys better be there."

Dick didn't need a reminder that his precious Saturday night was to be wasted on attending one of Bruce's fancy little cocktail parties that were used to chat up women (mainly Selina) or convince any shareholders that investing more into Wayne Enterprises was a good idea. People expected him to be there, after all, he was the future of the company, even if his heart was set on something entirely different.

Rachel frowned, little creases forming above her eyebrows. "That's not really my scene," she admitted.

Wally only grinned, shaking his head. "I'll pay for your herbal tea for the next month," he promised, and Dick knew how attached Rachel was to her tea. It was a herbal mix of chamomile and honey, but when he'd read up on the effects of the ingredients, it only left him feeling more confused.

There was a flicker of a smile on her face, and it was obvious she'd been swayed to Wally's side.

"Gar?" The redhead asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world dude," Gar drawled lazily, giving a small fist bump.

"You gonna pick up chicks again?" Wally teased, smirking slightly.

Rachel retorted, "More like try," and Dick internally cringed when the blonde boy's face dropped in hurt. He couldn't blame her though, she didn't know of his crush.

Wally finally turned to the last member of the group. "Dick?" he strung out the word, his eyes twinkling.

The aforementioned boy shuffled in his seat, shaking his head sombrely.

"You aren't coming?" Rachel asked, suddenly looking more worried than ever before.

Dick was apologetic. "I can't," he confessed. "I've got to go to one of Bruce's crappy parties."

Wally was crestfallen. "Can't you just ditch it? I'm not gonna have the house alone to myself for a long time, and I need my wingman!" His tone was light, the words expressing his true discomfort.

"I really can't; Bruce will kill me if I don't attend." It was an exaggeration of course; Bruce wouldn't physically harm him, but the lectures and disappointment he would have to endure (not to mention the harsh glares) were probably somewhere on par with the pain.

Rachel's hand was resting against his arm again, as she suggested, "You could always sneak out."

Dick sighed quietly, but they didn't comment on it. He didn't have the patience to argue with them, but their idea wouldn't work. It hadn't worked when he was a twelve-year-old who wanted to go to Roy's birthday party, nor when he was a fifteen-year-old trying to escape to his first ever teenage party. With his eighteenth birthday approaching in a few months, there was no doubt that the plan was going to fail again, and he didn't want to go through all of the energy of planning something just for it to end up crumbling into irretrievable pieces.

Apparently his silence was enough for their answer, and they refused to press on the matter anymore, much to his relief.

He scratched his arm, and his friends resumed eating in silence. Gar prodded his food with his plastic fork, scowling in disgust. Rachel hadn't touched her meal, and he frowned in confusion.

His hand briefly pointed to her food. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

She jumped back as if he had shot him, pale cheeks reddening into a rosy shade. "I," she stuttered, and it was weird to see her cool composure crumble away into embarrassment. Rachel Roth did meditation, the occasional bit of yoga and AP psychology; she didn't do embarrassment.

"I am," she promised, and he shot her a pleased smile.

But she only flushed redder, refusing to meet his eyes. He didn't have enough time to wonder what was wrong though, because Gar was already obsessing over the latest Mega Monkey's Game.

"It has seventeen customisable levels!" he exclaimed through mouthfuls of pizza. "So you can have seventeen times the amount of fun!"

Dick knew he was quoting the advertisements, having been shown them about a million times. Gar was really exited about the game and it was a distraction from all of the homework that was being assigned. Senior Year embraced the word 'studying,' and Gar wasn't the kind of kid who enjoyed school (neither was Wally, Rachel or half of their class for that matter).

"Oh joy," Rachel chimed in, and when Dick snorted quietly, her eyes widened slightly.

"Y'know they changed the storyline," Gar said, seemingly ignoring Rachel's biting comment. "So that instead of fighting the zombie apocalypse to find bananas, they're fighting vampire zombies instead."

Dick didn't even know what a vampire zombie was, let alone how the hybrid was going to be defeated by a group of monkeys. He'd played the first instalment of the game, ages ago, when he'd been younger, and had mainly been put off by how the rules of physics were completely disregarded. When a monkey jumped off a hill, it did not manage to land on top of a plane flying above. He preferred more interesting games, like Grand Theft Auto, although the storyline was a little off putting.

"That doesn't even make sense," Rachel pointed out, and Gar's expression twisted into something that Dick couldn't really decipher, no matter how hard he tried.

"Guys," Wally suddenly spoke up, and it was obvious that he hadn't been paying attention to anything. "I'm kinda broke right now. Does anybody wanna buy the snacks for the party?'

"Who exactly are you inviting?" Gar asked, and Dick wondered the same thing.

The redhead leaned forwards, smirking. "Donna, Roy, Garth, you three, Toni, Betty, Artemis, Jenny –"

"– Wait," Dick paused, mentally running through the names. "Don't you think that inviting your ex-girlfriend and the girl you like, to the same party is a bad idea?"

Wally looked downwards, a guilty expression forming on his face. "Jenny and I are still good friends!" he argued, his head jerking upwards.

"She tried to send a bag of rotten vegetables to your house," the only female member of their group replied. "That doesn't exactly spell friendship to me."

"That's the kind of banter we have!" Wally claimed, but it was evident from the looks on everybody's faces, that they didn't believe him at all. He pouted slightly, crossing his arms tightly against his chest. "Okay, so I kinda invited her yesterday because I was _way_ excited about having the house to myself! It kinda slipped out and I can't exactly kick her out now, can I?"

There was a gentle pause as he seemed to consider the idea, and Dick's palm found itself resting against his own forehead.

"Can I?" Wally asked himself. "Do you think that would work?"

Gar shrugged. "I mean, I don't really know man. She'd probably stop talking to you altogether, or chop your balls up."

Dick tried to avoid the mental image, he really did. He'd only met Jenny a few times, but she was everything that her name proclaimed – headstrong, confident and unwilling to take bullshit from any guy currently residing on planet Earth. She kept her black hair dyed with pink streaks, always wore black boots, and hated any type of authority.

His personality often clashed with her, and that's why he hadn't minded that much when the inevitable breakup came. Jenny spent most of her junior year staying at in-school suspension and she'd already been arrested twice on accounts of graffiti but the charges had been dropped. She wasn't exactly the model student.

He suddenly paused, and let some of the pieces join together. Jenny didn't like the popular girls. It was one of her prominent points that were expressed – something about the plasticity of the way they acted. Dick hated to admit it, but after witnessing Kory and Kitten's behaviour, it made sense. Especially the latter.

It was starting to make sense. Jenny, the vengeful teenager who had previously had experience in graffiti, plus a hateful vendetta against girls like Kory. And the whole promiscuous factor tied in with Jenny's opinion of the redheaded girl – it was a known fact that Baran Flinders, one of the members of Jenny's ragtag gang who was cruelly nicknamed 'Mammoth' due to his hulking figure, had a massive crush on Kory Anders and usually ditched the group in pursuit of more favourable activities.

Everything was beginning to fit together, but there were still hundreds of resolved questions. How did Jenny get access to the school during the summer vacation? Only a few members of staff and the caretakers had the keys, and it wasn't like everybody knew their addresses.

"– Dick?" Wally interrupted, causing the black haired boy to smile remorsefully. "Are you even listening?"

He struggled for an answer, with three-quarters of his mind busily answering and finding more questions related to the graffiti. Eventually he just shook his head.

There was a burst of relief when the bell rang, giving him a perfect opportunity to create a half-hearted excuse about needing to get to his locker quickly. He didn't have any time to concentrate on their response, because he was already in the hallway, staring at the graffiti. If he was to prove his theory, he needed handwriting samples to compare and contrast.

Unfortunately, there were still holes in his theory, little pockets of air that didn't quite add up. His hands snaked into his pockets, and he groaned quietly in annoyance. Justice needed to be served, but it never seemed to be as easy as everybody claimed it was. Although he finally had a solid lead, it wasn't exactly going to be the quickest mystery to solve.

Dick reached his locker, unclenching his fist slowly. He spun the dial slowly, too absorbed in his thoughts to fully pay attention. Waiting for the familiar clicking sound, he stole another look at the graffiti. Handwriting samples were going to be hard to find, since Jenny didn't really hand in her homework that much. And he couldn't just ask her to write something down for him – she'd realise that something was off.

He glanced sideways just to catch the slender figure of Kory darting towards her own locker. Her eyes had turned a bright red, and she awkwardly dabbed at one of them; it didn't take a genius to tell that she'd been crying. Just as he stepped forward to go to her and ask if she was okay, Kitten's words echoed through his head and he cowered away, back to his locker.

Maybe it was best if he just distanced himself from her for a few days. Until he could decide whether or not to trust Kitten's judgement.

He watched secretly, as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and rummaged around her locker for a tissue and a stick of mascara. She quickly reapplied another layer, her hand slightly shaky from the tears before. Nobody else took notice but Dick put that down to the obliviousness held by most teenagers.

She retied her hair, straightened out her bangs and let a few strands of wispy hair hang out by the sides. Ate a mint, put on a thin layer of slightly tinted lip balm and readjusted her skirt so that it was a little shorter. It was fascinating to watch her routine, and he completely missed out how creepy he was acting.

Her eyes were still a little red though, and it was obvious that she was just putting up a front until the end of the day.

Kory turned to look at him, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Smiling sweetly, and giving a small wave, the girl greeted quietly, "Hi!"

He turned on his heel and completely ignored her, feeling guiltier with each passing second. She tried again, stepping closer. "Dick?"

Eliciting odd stares from random high schoolers who were beside her, Kory quickly gave up on trying. For a fleeting second he thought she was going to come up to him, and that would only make things worse.

Her head was bowed into her locker, and there was an air of misery that surrounded her. She'd gotten his message, loud and clear, and even though that had been his aim, he felt really bad. Which didn't really make sense, but he didn't know how to get rid of the growing feeling inside his stomach.

Rachel was coming towards him from the other side of the corridor, clasping her books to her chest with one arm. He had Government with her next, and he took her steady arrival as a speedy exit away from any drama. Dick quickly moved towards her, exhaling slowly as he did so, hoping it would alleviate the knots in his stomach.

Kory glanced up at him once more, before shutting her locker door and moving in the opposite direction. He was too busy watching her departure that he didn't realise Rachel was beside him until she actually waved a pale hand in front of him. She was wearing dark purple nail polish that matched her outfit, which was a surprise, since Rachel Roth wasn't exactly a fashionista.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned. "You've been acting weird all day."

He tore himself from Kory's disappearing figure, forcing himself to look at Rachel's face instead. Her lips were quirked upwards, exposing the sharp outline of her high cheekbones, and the delicate arch of her eyebrows. She was very pretty – but loads of guys tended to overlook that, terrified by her strong personality or choice of clothing.

But the girl beside him was smart, and there was a reason why she took all AP classes, just like him. Her eyes narrowed, following his previous line of sight, and she let out an audible gasp. Rachel had always been blunt, and today was no exception. "Were you just checking out Kory Anders' ass?" she questioned.

Dick found himself reddening under her scrutinising gaze. Technically he had, but it had been a total accident. His aim was to make sure she was okay (even though it was _his_ actions that had upset her in the first place). "No!" he cried out.

"You _were_ ," she accused, and used her narrow fingers to flick him on the head. "Don't be an idiot," she warned.

His face felt like it was on fire, as he walked towards his next class. "I wasn't!" he defended, but Rachel had already made up her mind, and there was no stopping her.

" _Sure_ ," she said, sarcastically.

"I really wasn't!"

* * *

Kory sighed as the minutes ticked by, in her never-ending German class. Dick was ignoring her, and she didn't know why.

As she tapped her fingers against the bare desk, she tried to calm herself down. He probably hadn't even noticed her – the chances were, she was probably being over dramatic, complicating matters that didn't exist. It was a silly thing she did, something she hadn't learnt how to snap out of yet.

Her teacher must have noticed her discomfort because the redhead was greeted with a patronising, "Fraulein Anders? Bist du OK?"

There was a chorus of sniggers, and Kory's cheeks heated up slightly. She understood the question properly – _are you okay?_ – and obviously the standard reply was an affirmative, but if she was being really honest with herself, then she was going to have to lie.

"Ja, danke," Kory thanked, quickly finishing her worksheet off, amidst all of the light chatter. The bell was going to ring, and then she would go to the school's community service club and figure out if there was an actual problem between her and Dick that she needed to sort out.

She liked hanging out with him. He was funny, a great listener and awfully sweet. He was cute too, and that was definitely an added bonus, although she would never admit that aloud. Sometimes he was pensive and quiet, but most of the time they would talk about mysteries and detective stories, since they were his favourite. He'd been the only person who hadn't completely dismissed her at the beginning of the year, and she held that close.

The worksheet itself was extremely simple, and that was due to her natural ability to pick up languages quickly. After she'd finished it, the bell let out a long buzz and Kory quickly picked up her things, intending to leave the classroom as fast as possible. She found herself staring at her locker door, moments later, stuck in the crowded hallway.

It was busy, amongst the loud conversations between students. Dumping her books into her locker, she tightened her ponytail and took a deep breath. She'd promised herself that this week was going to be different, and that she was going to make a proper effort to regain her old friends. And it had worked with Kitten, but most people still resorted to derogative terms – _slut_ being their favourite – and the whispers never stopped. They tangled themselves during class, hiding behind her every step in the hallway, eyes darting to the graffiti.

"That's Kory Anders," the whispers always said, "she's the whore who's addicted to sex."

Even then, when she was standing at the side of the hallway minding her own business, Kory could still sense the occasional glance focused on her, the words that slipped out when they thought she wasn't listening. The rumours tugged at her clothing, yanked at her hair, tried to trip her up at every possible step.

Sighing softly, she picked up the remnants of her homework and placed them gently in her bag. The hallway was beginning to clear up – kids desperate to escape the four walls that entrapped them for seven hours each day.

Dick was nowhere to be seen, and that fact seemed to crush her entire being. She didn't know why she was putting all of her faith and expectations on him suddenly; he was just a friendly teenage boy, not a knight in shining armour. And she was Kory Anders – not a damsel in distress.

She found herself at the gym doors, yawning slightly. Mae was already there, dressed like a traffic light, cheerfully staring at the door. She had a wide smile on her face, and watched as Kory walked towards her.

"Oh cupcake, you're here!" Mae cried out, and Kory's expression waivered slightly. "And you brought your friend again!"

Kory spun around to see Dick who purposely avoided her gaze. She sighed softly and brought her attention back to the lady standing beside her. If he didn't want to talk to her, then she would try to give him his space, regardless of how she felt about the matter.

Dick asked, "Where the others?" a question that Kory had simultaneously been wondering too. Apart from Sawyer in the corner, with his brown tufts of hair that curled slightly at the end, there wasn't anybody else present. She knew that Johnny Ranchide and Billy Numero were both required to be here, but Toni and Betty who were there last time had only been doing a one-time thing.

Mae beamed. "Johnny and Billy are such good students that the Principal cancelled the rest of their school community service. They won't have to do any more work."

Dick crossed his arms. "But they didn't even do anything!" he said, looking extremely angry.

Kory silently agreed; last time the two boys had ditched the activities halfway and hadn't come back. It was really unfair that they got lose from the work, whereas Dick and Sawyer (mainly the former) actually helped her with cleaning up the graffiti. Plus, it meant that it would take longer to clear with a small number – a fact that made her stomach churn and caused her to cough quietly.

"Now, now, dear," Mae said sternly, "It's the principal's orders, and there's nothing you can do about it." Her tone had taken a sinister turn, eyes scowling fiercely. "If you want to complain, then don't blame me when things go sour."

Dick exchanged a look with Kory; radiating bewilderment and concern. Mae only smirked, slapped her thigh and then guffawed loudly.

"It's only a joke!" she squealed, her deep laugh echoing throughout the gym. But Kory shifted on her feet, uncomfortable. "We have to get started quickly," Mae then said when nobody gave any indication that they believed her. She made her way to the centre of the gym where buckets, sponges and gloves were all laid neatly into three lines, as if she'd guessed that there were only going to be three of them who actually came.

Mae began to explain the game plan for the next hour, but Kory was momentarily distracted by Sawyer who'd chosen to stand right beside her and place his arm around her shoulders. She glared at him, and pushed his arm to the side, but it snaked upwards again, finding itself around her hips instead.

Kory let out a warning sound from the back of her throat, and the boy backed off immediately, holding his hands up in surrender. Dick had gone to find something for Mae, the latter mentioning she needed to find the janitor for something, leaving the pair alone. As soon as Mae's retreating figure had disappeared, Sawyer sidled up to her, holding a cocky smile that she had slowly grown to hate.

"What's up?" he asked, and she tried to find something to busy herself with. It took a second for her to figure out the true meaning of the question – English still managed to trip her up occasionally, and the slang that teenagers loved using only worsened it.

"Nothing," she said, the answer coming out a little too harshly than intended.

Sawyer was looking at her expectantly and she didn't know why. He bit the bullet ten seconds later, waggling his eyebrows. "So, when do you wanna do it?"

Kory decided that trying to straighten out the buckets was the only interesting thing to do in the room. "Do what?" she questioned, her eyebrows creasing in confusion.

He gave a mock sigh, resembling a crushed kitten. "Well it's pretty obvious," he explained, "and you didn't really need to tell the whole school about it, but if that's how you wanna play, then I'm down for it."

Sawyer wasn't making any sense at all. "What did I tell the whole school about?" Kory quizzed, trying to find out what in X'hal's name he was talking about.

He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and in his it probably was. "You told the whole school that I slept with you last Friday."

Her mouth opened and closed, the words stuck at the tip of her tongue. She wanted to scream and yell – more rumours that would only worsen her already minute number of friendships. As much as she tried not to care about what others said about her, there were some things that slipped past her barriers and smashed right into her heart.

 _"What?!"_ she finally cried out, distressed. "I _never_ said that!"

The boy looked at her as if she was crazy – and by now, Kory felt like she was – before shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging dramatically. "Oh," he summed up, before briskly walking closer to her. "Do you still wanna?"

Kory almost burst into tears, due to sheer exasperation. Her voice was increasing in volume, and her nails dug into the palms of her hands. " _No_!"

Sawyer rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall. "Somebody's being a little _stressy_ ," he noted, and it took all of her self-control not to punch him right there on the tip of his jaw, wiping off his rude expression.

Before she could even fumble around for a poor excuse of a reply, Dick came back into the gym, carrying a baffled expression. And she guessed he had every right too – in her frustration she'd knocked over all three of the buckets and kicked a glove to the other side of the court, leaving a large disarray of mess in the centre.

He sounded confused, which was a cute look on him. "Is everything okay?"

Sawyer looked like he was going to whip out a cigarette and start puffing it in the corner. "Fine," he answered for her.

Dick didn't sound convinced, but he ignored the matter. "Mae says we can start on the front wall, since that's the most obvious one," he said. "I've already got all of the remover out there; I just need the buckets, sponges and gloves."

"Cool." Sawyer responded, and Kory bit her tongue. He didn't seem interested or impressed at all; the latter was probably because of Dick's family, but it could also be due to a number of reasons. People found it hard to be friends with him – his background was either too intimidating, or they disliked his guardian's way of living. Kory had never found a reason to befriend him, having been fortunate to stay in her close-knit group of friends, but now that was over and she was discovering how nice he truly was.

Apart from the whole idea of ignoring her. That wasn't exactly pleasant.

Sometimes Kory felt like she spent more time wandering the hallways aimlessly than actually learning, and it had begun to become more prominent due to her unorthodox start of the year. She washed through the sea of people, nervous smiles abundant. It was different walking in silence through the empty corridors, though. She found it more relaxing.

They found the wall very quickly, and as soon as the gloves tightly hid her fingers, and the sponge was gripped by her hand, she started to get rid of her name. She knew that they weren't going to finish the whole wall by the end of the day, and she'd already made up her mind that at least her name would be free from the cruel words.

Sawyer seemed to take everything at a slow pace, chewing gum and moving languidly between strokes. Her sponge traced the delicate curve of the ' _K_ ,' before rubbing into the surface; it came out stained in black. The chemicals left a bitter smell around her hands, resembling a sharp odour of garlic mixture in with board pen. It choked the back of her throat, and she had to use her arm to cover her mouth.

"What the fuck is in this thing?" Sawyer asked, copying her action.

Dick coughed and scowled, wrinkling his nose. "I don't even know."

Kory refused to speak, and only scrubbed harder, wincing when even her arm couldn't protect her from the smell any further. The four letters of her name were beginning to fade slowly, but her surname still stood, proud and tall, taunting her. Whoever had written this, had taken great pleasure in making sure that each letter was as big as possible, and her arm began to tire.

She switched positions, letting her weight rest against the wall and allowing a small yawn to pass from her lips. Dick had started on the opposite side, and the faint silvery outline of the word 'slut' (completing the wonderfully biting phrase: _Kory Anders is a slut_ ) was still visible, the marker having left cracks in the paintwork. She shot him a thankful smile but he only stared unsurely at her.

Mentally running through their list of interactions, the redhead found no fault in any of them. If she was being precise, then maybe the way she had rudely run off in the morning could have offended him, but Dick didn't seem like that kind of guy to get hung up on tiny details. He was a detective, but not a horrible person.

Sawyer finally dropped his sponge in his bucket, groaning loudly, sounding defeated. "I give up! I'm gonna go find some air freshener." The brown haired boy stepped closer, lowering his voice, but not enough that Dick couldn't hear. "Wanna come with and make out with me in the janitors closet?" he teased, but he still sounded slightly serious.

She did the only totally acceptable thing in that moment: made a severe threat about kicking him in the crotch if he continued to act like that, and then crossed her arms angrily.

Dick watched by the side, a sense of interest piquing. He'd still held out for the hope that Kory wasn't a totally trashy friend – that maybe the rumours about her were just rumours. And her comment seemed to be confirmation. When Sawyer glared at him, trying to show off his alpha male skills (and failing horribly at it), Dick only picked up his sponge and continued to clean the wall, still closely listening into the conversation.

Sawyer left five seconds later, and Kory didn't say anything. She resumed her work, and he could tell how desperate she was to get rid of the graffiti. He understood her situation clearly from experience – sometimes the easiest way was to delete all evidence and pretend it never happened. Obviously that wasn't the healthiest of activities, but it brought temporary needed relief.

"Dick?" she finally asked softly, resembling a lost kitten. "Are you ignoring me?"

Kory looked up at him, with her pretty green eyes. He swallowed, feeling his throat constrict.

She didn't give him any time to answer because she stepped forward, looking apologetic. "Because if you are, whatever I did, I am _so_ sorry for hurting you. I like being friends with you, and I don't want some little thing that I do _not_ even know about to come in between us."

He smiled at her honesty, and had enough courage to explain. "I was just pissed at you, even though I had no proper reason why. It was probably 'cause Kitten told me that you were cheating with her boyfriend and I lost any respect for you. But now that turned out to be another silly rumour, and I'm standing here feeling like the biggest idiot on planet Earth."

She only giggled, eyes twinkling. "You're not the biggest idiot on Earth. Maybe just the biggest one in this school."

Her laugh was infectious, and he found himself copying her movements. They were two seventeen year olds holding sopping wet sponges filled with harmful chemicals, laughing loudly in an empty school.

Until she stopped suddenly, and cocked her head. "Kitten told you?" she asked, and he suddenly felt bad. It probably wasn't the best feeling in the world, knowing your best friend was spreading rumours about you.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"During lunch?" She asked another question, sighing. His nod was enough to confirm her misery, and she put a sorrowful hand to her cheek and briefly closed his eyes. He was terrified she would start sobbing; Dick Grayson didn't know how to deal with crying girls.

"We had just made up before lunch had started," Kory complained. "X'hal, the first day of the week is already going horribly wrong!"

She was on the verge of tears, her lips parted and curled downwards; she bit her bottom lip in annoyance. Dick panicked, and felt the same wave of desperation running through his veins. But he calmed himself down immediately, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay," he reassured, and the next two words slipped out before he could control them. "I promise."

That seemed to calm her down, and she exhaled quietly. "I'm sorry," she apologised, "that was extremely uncalled for."

He grinned at her, "It's fine Kory."

The redhead scratched her nose, blushing slightly. "I think we should finish our work," she suggested.

He nodded, picking up the sponge and chucking the second one towards her. She caught it and laughed, tempted to throw it back at him, but ultimately deciding against it.

"Sounds like a plan." Dick agreed, and the pair set off.


	10. ten

A _uthor's Note: Shoutout_ _to_ r0bstarfan13 _for their sweet message! Happy Valentine's Day! By the way, I got rid of the disclaimer bit at the beginning because there's literally no point reading it if you've gotten this far into the story lol. This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but whatever. Um, I don't really have anything else to say, but yay the chapters are getting longer._

 _ps: tiny bit of angst in the middle, cutesy bit of fluff at the end, awkward friendship problems throughout (but that's a given in this story)._

* * *

 ** _Chapter Ten: He Was Just A Friendly Teenage Boy_**

* * *

"So Kitten has some sort of loose screw in her head," Wally pointed out, hiding his sniggering behind the back of his hand. Dick glared at him fiercely, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes – attempting his best imitation of Bruce. Wally didn't look phased for a moment, before his eyes widened and he cowered away, the laughter dying down.

"Her brain's probably filled with them," Rachel suggested, readjusting her black t-shirt so that it hung more loosely around her hips.

When Garfield was the only one to laugh, he sent Dick two looks: the latter bordering on plain desperation. The heir of Wayne Enterprises managed a small chuckle, but his mind was focused on vehemently trying to stop his skin from crawling. Kitten was pretty – he'd give her that – but she'd learnt no indication of personal space, and her attempts at being 'cute' (or even 'sexy,' he shuddered) were more invasive than anything.

Rachel caught on immediately, and he put that down to her freaky sixth sense of being able to sense emotions of people. Which, according to Dick's detective skills, didn't add up since she was completely oblivious to Gar and his attempts of expressing his romantic attraction to her. Regardless, she gave him a sympathetic smile and subtly inches closer (although he didn't really acknowledge either).

Wally unclasped his hands together and stretched them outwards, before scratching his freckled nose. There was a guilty look on his face. "I kinda wanna see how things play out," he admitted, "but I feel slightly bad. I mean, the girl's not even going to know what's coming to her."

"She _did_ kiss her best friend's boyfriend," Rachel pointed out, and it was evident that there was no concern coming from her side.

Dick only spent the time trying to remember the scene, trying to memorise every tiny detail. He'd definitely accidentally glanced at _some_ sort of intimate moment, and all it did was frustrate him, and he wasn't exactly sure why. It was probably because he'd started to consider Kory as an actual friend, and her skewed morals had completely ruined everything. Or maybe it was because she seemed actually genuine, and it turns out that her niceness was probably one of her masks.

Jumping to conclusions was always the biggest mistake a detective could do, and Dick tried not to fall into the trap. But it was pretty tempting.

"Yeah," Gar shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "I mean no offence or anything, but that's like the number one rule of any friendship code."

Shrugging, Wally looked to his best friend for some sort of backup, but Dick was busy glaring holes into his sandwich, mentally trying to sort out his problems. The conversation continued, but Dick tuned it out. The arguments turned into little buzzes of sounds. Eventually he drained half of his water bottle, chugging the water down while he searched the compartments of his mind.

His fingers slipped and the bottle smashed into the table, water seeping out. "Fuck!" he called out, not caring who heard.

The arm resting on the table had the entirety of its sleeve soaked. He groaned loudly and the outcries of his friends began to focus in again. The sharp tone of Rachel's words, the higher-pitched yelp coming from Gar's corner, and Wally's eloquent string of curse words.

Picking up the bottle, Dick uttered another swear under his breath. "Sorry," he apologised, feeling more embarrassed than concerned about the mess.

Wally shook his head, "It's fine," he smiled, "but you're the one who gets to ask for the paper towels."

Dick didn't mind doing that, since the lunch lady, Abigail Hunkel, actually liked him (even though she wasn't as fond of his adopted dad). Her eyes were already twinkling when he reached the queue, possessing motherly qualities that meant most students adored her. He opened his mouth to ask, but she only passed him the towels and winked.

Mopping up the mess, Dick scowled whilst the conversation resumed. He was extremely angry at himself, for refusing to believe the graffiti. After all the time he'd spent convincing himself that Kory was a perfectly decent human being, for her to go around and cheat with her best friend's boyfriend of all people stung his head.

He was disappointed in her, and disappointed in himself as well. Contrary to popular belief, Dick found it hard to keep close emotional bonds with people, what with his hectic lifestyle and overbearing past. He didn't let many people past his walls (with the exception of Donna, Roy, Garth and the three people sitting on his table). And even then, he'd barely spoken to Garth (because he'd been focusing on finishing his swimming competition); the former three went to a different school and although Dick knew everything about those seven people, they barely knew anything about him.

"…you do realise that you've finished cleaning up the mess, right?" Rachel's quiet voice came into focus, breaking his mental silence, as her hand rose up to land on his shoulder.

It was true – his hands were continuing to rub the damp towels against the table even when there wasn't any remaining moisture left.

Dick lifted the towels away, too occupied with his thoughts to even fake sheepishness. "Thanks," he muttered sounding emotionless, before dumping the rubbish away into the trashcan.

They were all staring at him now, and he could practically hear their thoughts: they were written all over their faces. Gar had that lazy frown of concern; Wally possessed a grin that was entirely fake; and Rachel's eyes were widened in concern. He snapped out of it, rolling his eyes playfully and pretending that his attention wasn't hiding somewhere else.

It worked for the two boys who brushed it off, but Rachel didn't look convinced. She'd always singled him out, expressing her unease and making sure that everything was okay. But it never worked both ways – whenever he noticed that she was upset, his friend would close up immediately, almost as if she refused to feel anything.

He stumbled back into his seat, but not before dumping the remnants of his soggy meal into another trashcan. Lunch had barely started but he'd lost his appetite and there was still a dribble of cool water running down his skin. He wiped it off, just in time to catch the beginning of another conversation.

"I'm having a party next Saturday," Wally said, pumping his fist into the air. "Mom and Dad are going on a weekend trip and won't be back 'til Monday which means I have the house free for three days! You guys better be there."

Dick didn't need a reminder that his precious Saturday night was to be wasted on attending one of Bruce's fancy little cocktail parties that were used to chat up women (mainly Selina) or convince any shareholders that investing more into Wayne Enterprises was a good idea. People expected him to be there, after all, he was the future of the company, even if his heart was set on something entirely different.

Rachel frowned, little creases forming above her eyebrows. "That's not really my scene," she admitted.

Wally only grinned, shaking his head. "I'll pay for your herbal tea for the next month," he promised, and Dick knew how attached Rachel was to her tea. It was a herbal mix of chamomile and honey, but when he'd read up on the effects of the ingredients, it only left him feeling more confused.

There was a flicker of a smile on her face, and it was obvious she'd been swayed to Wally's side.

"Gar?" The redhead asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world dude," Gar drawled lazily, giving a small fist bump.

"You gonna pick up chicks again?" Wally teased, smirking slightly.

Rachel retorted, "More like try," and Dick internally cringed when the blonde boy's face dropped in hurt. He couldn't blame her though, she didn't know of his crush.

Wally finally turned to the last member of the group. "Dick?" he strung out the word, his eyes twinkling.

The aforementioned boy shuffled in his seat, shaking his head sombrely.

"You aren't coming?" Rachel asked, suddenly looking more worried than ever before.

Dick was apologetic. "I can't," he confessed. "I've got to go to one of Bruce's crappy parties."

Wally was crestfallen. "Can't you just ditch it? I'm not gonna have the house alone to myself for a long time, and I need my wingman!" His tone was light, the words expressing his true discomfort.

"I really can't; Bruce will kill me if I don't attend." It was an exaggeration of course; Bruce wouldn't physically harm him, but the lectures and disappointment he would have to endure (not to mention the harsh glares) were probably somewhere on par with the pain.

Rachel's hand was resting against his arm again, as she suggested, "You could always sneak out."

Dick sighed quietly, but they didn't comment on it. He didn't have the patience to argue with them, but their idea wouldn't work. It hadn't worked when he was a twelve-year-old who wanted to go to Roy's birthday party, nor when he was a fifteen-year-old trying to escape to his first ever teenage party. With his eighteenth birthday approaching in a few months, there was no doubt that the plan was going to fail again, and he didn't want to go through all of the energy of planning something just for it to end up crumbling into irretrievable pieces.

Apparently his silence was enough for their answer, and they refused to press on the matter anymore, much to his relief.

He scratched his arm, and his friends resumed eating in silence. Gar prodded his food with his plastic fork, scowling in disgust. Rachel hadn't touched her meal, and he frowned in confusion.

His hand briefly pointed to her food. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

She jumped back as if he had shot him, pale cheeks reddening into a rosy shade. "I," she stuttered, and it was weird to see her cool composure crumble away into embarrassment. Rachel Roth did meditation, the occasional bit of yoga and AP psychology; she didn't do embarrassment.

"I am," she promised, and he shot her a pleased smile.

But she only flushed redder, refusing to meet his eyes. He didn't have enough time to wonder what was wrong though, because Gar was already obsessing over the latest Mega Monkey's Game.

"It has seventeen customisable levels!" he exclaimed through mouthfuls of pizza. "So you can have seventeen times the amount of fun!"

Dick knew he was quoting the advertisements, having been shown them about a million times. Gar was really exited about the game and it was a distraction from all of the homework that was being assigned. Senior Year embraced the word 'studying,' and Gar wasn't the kind of kid who enjoyed school (neither was Wally, Rachel or half of their class for that matter).

"Oh joy," Rachel chimed in, and when Dick snorted quietly, her eyes widened slightly.

"Y'know they changed the storyline," Gar said, seemingly ignoring Rachel's biting comment. "So that instead of fighting the zombie apocalypse to find bananas, they're fighting vampire zombies instead."

Dick didn't even know what a vampire zombie was, let alone how the hybrid was going to be defeated by a group of monkeys. He'd played the first instalment of the game, ages ago, when he'd been younger, and had mainly been put off by how the rules of physics were completely disregarded. When a monkey jumped off a hill, it did not manage to land on top of a plane flying above. He preferred more interesting games, like Grand Theft Auto, although the storyline was a little off putting.

"That doesn't even make sense," Rachel pointed out, and Gar's expression twisted into something that Dick couldn't really decipher, no matter how hard he tried.

"Guys," Wally suddenly spoke up, and it was obvious that he hadn't been paying attention to anything. "I'm kinda broke right now. Does anybody wanna buy the snacks for the party?'

"Who exactly are you inviting?" Gar asked, and Dick wondered the same thing.

The redhead leaned forwards, smirking. "Donna, Roy, Garth, you three, Toni, Betty, Artemis, Jenny –"

"– Wait," Dick paused, mentally running through the names. "Don't you think that inviting your ex-girlfriend and the girl you like, to the same party is a bad idea?"

Wally looked downwards, a guilty expression forming on his face. "Jenny and I are still good friends!" he argued, his head jerking upwards.

"She tried to send a bag of rotten vegetables to your house," the only female member of their group replied. "That doesn't exactly spell friendship to me."

"That's the kind of banter we have!" Wally claimed, but it was evident from the looks on everybody's faces, that they didn't believe him at all. He pouted slightly, crossing his arms tightly against his chest. "Okay, so I kinda invited her yesterday because I was _way_ excited about having the house to myself! It kinda slipped out and I can't exactly kick her out now, can I?"

There was a gentle pause as he seemed to consider the idea, and Dick's palm found itself resting against his own forehead.

"Can I?" Wally asked himself. "Do you think that would work?"

Gar shrugged. "I mean, I don't really know man. She'd probably stop talking to you altogether, or chop your balls up."

Dick tried to avoid the mental image, he really did. He'd only met Jenny a few times, but she was everything that her name proclaimed – headstrong, confident and unwilling to take bullshit from any guy currently residing on planet Earth. She kept her black hair dyed with pink streaks, always wore black boots, and hated any type of authority.

His personality often clashed with her, and that's why he hadn't minded that much when the inevitable breakup came. Jenny spent most of her junior year staying at in-school suspension and she'd already been arrested twice on accounts of graffiti but the charges had been dropped. She wasn't exactly the model student.

He suddenly paused, and let some of the pieces join together. Jenny didn't like the popular girls. It was one of her prominent points that were expressed – something about the plasticity of the way they acted. Dick hated to admit it, but after witnessing Kory and Kitten's behaviour, it made sense. Especially the latter.

It was starting to make sense. Jenny, the vengeful teenager who had previously had experience in graffiti, plus a hateful vendetta against girls like Kory. And the whole promiscuous factor tied in with Jenny's opinion of the redheaded girl – it was a known fact that Baran Flinders, one of the members of Jenny's ragtag gang who was cruelly nicknamed 'Mammoth' due to his hulking figure, had a massive crush on Kory Anders and usually ditched the group in pursuit of more favourable activities.

Everything was beginning to fit together, but there were still hundreds of resolved questions. How did Jenny get access to the school during the summer vacation? Only a few members of staff and the caretakers had the keys, and it wasn't like everybody knew their addresses.

"– Dick?" Wally interrupted, causing the black haired boy to smile remorsefully. "Are you even listening?"

He struggled for an answer, with three-quarters of his mind busily answering and finding more questions related to the graffiti. Eventually he just shook his head.

There was a burst of relief when the bell rang, giving him a perfect opportunity to create a half-hearted excuse about needing to get to his locker quickly. He didn't have any time to concentrate on their response, because he was already in the hallway, staring at the graffiti. If he was to prove his theory, he needed handwriting samples to compare and contrast.

Unfortunately, there were still holes in his theory, little pockets of air that didn't quite add up. His hands snaked into his pockets, and he groaned quietly in annoyance. Justice needed to be served, but it never seemed to be as easy as everybody claimed it was. Although he finally had a solid lead, it wasn't exactly going to be the quickest mystery to solve.

Dick reached his locker, unclenching his fist slowly. He spun the dial slowly, too absorbed in his thoughts to fully pay attention. Waiting for the familiar clicking sound, he stole another look at the graffiti. Handwriting samples were going to be hard to find, since Jenny didn't really hand in her homework that much. And he couldn't just ask her to write something down for him – she'd realise that something was off.

He glanced sideways just to catch the slender figure of Kory darting towards her own locker. Her eyes had turned a bright red, and she awkwardly dabbed at one of them; it didn't take a genius to tell that she'd been crying. Just as he stepped forward to go to her and ask if she was okay, Kitten's words echoed through his head and he cowered away, back to his locker.

Maybe it was best if he just distanced himself from her for a few days. Until he could decide whether or not to trust Kitten's judgement.

He watched secretly, as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and rummaged around her locker for a tissue and a stick of mascara. She quickly reapplied another layer, her hand slightly shaky from the tears before. Nobody else took notice but Dick put that down to the obliviousness held by most teenagers.

She retied her hair, straightened out her bangs and let a few strands of wispy hair hang out by the sides. Ate a mint, put on a thin layer of slightly tinted lip balm and readjusted her skirt so that it was a little shorter. It was fascinating to watch her routine, and he completely missed out how creepy he was acting.

Her eyes were still a little red though, and it was obvious that she was just putting up a front until the end of the day.

Kory turned to look at him, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Smiling sweetly, and giving a small wave, the girl greeted quietly, "Hi!"

He turned on his heel and completely ignored her, feeling guiltier with each passing second. She tried again, stepping closer. "Dick?"

Eliciting odd stares from random high schoolers who were beside her, Kory quickly gave up on trying. For a fleeting second he thought she was going to come up to him, and that would only make things worse.

Her head was bowed into her locker, and there was an air of misery that surrounded her. She'd gotten his message, loud and clear, and even though that had been his aim, he felt really bad. Which didn't really make sense, but he didn't know how to get rid of the growing feeling inside his stomach.

Rachel was coming towards him from the other side of the corridor, clasping her books to her chest with one arm. He had Government with her next, and he took her steady arrival as a speedy exit away from any drama. Dick quickly moved towards her, exhaling slowly as he did so, hoping it would alleviate the knots in his stomach.

Kory glanced up at him once more, before shutting her locker door and moving in the opposite direction. He was too busy watching her departure that he didn't realise Rachel was beside him until she actually waved a pale hand in front of him. She was wearing dark purple nail polish that matched her outfit, which was a surprise, since Rachel Roth wasn't exactly a fashionista.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned. "You've been acting weird all day."

He tore himself from Kory's disappearing figure, forcing himself to look at Rachel's face instead. Her lips were quirked upwards, exposing the sharp outline of her high cheekbones, and the delicate arch of her eyebrows. She was very pretty – but loads of guys tended to overlook that, terrified by her strong personality or choice of clothing.

But the girl beside him was smart, and there was a reason why she took all AP classes, just like him. Her eyes narrowed, following his previous line of sight, and she let out an audible gasp. Rachel had always been blunt, and today was no exception. "Were you just checking out Kory Anders' ass?" she questioned.

Dick found himself reddening under her scrutinising gaze. Technically he had, but it had been a total accident. His aim was to make sure she was okay (even though it was _his_ actions that had upset her in the first place). "No!" he cried out.

"You _were_ ," she accused, and used her narrow fingers to flick him on the head. "Don't be an idiot," she warned.

His face felt like it was on fire, as he walked towards his next class. "I wasn't!" he defended, but Rachel had already made up her mind, and there was no stopping her.

" _Sure_ ," she said, sarcastically.

"I really wasn't!"

* * *

Kory sighed as the minutes ticked by, in her never-ending German class. Dick was ignoring her, and she didn't know why.

As she tapped her fingers against the bare desk, she tried to calm herself down. He probably hadn't even noticed her – the chances were, she was probably being over dramatic, complicating matters that didn't exist. It was a silly thing she did, something she hadn't learnt how to snap out of yet.

Her teacher must have noticed her discomfort because the redhead was greeted with a patronising, "Fraulein Anders? Bist du OK?"

There was a chorus of sniggers, and Kory's cheeks heated up slightly. She understood the question properly – _are you okay?_ – and obviously the standard reply was an affirmative, but if she was being really honest with herself, then she was going to have to lie.

"Ja, danke," Kory thanked, quickly finishing her worksheet off, amidst all of the light chatter. The bell was going to ring, and then she would go to the school's community service club and figure out if there was an actual problem between her and Dick that she needed to sort out.

She liked hanging out with him. He was funny, a great listener and awfully sweet. He was cute too, and that was definitely an added bonus, although she would never admit that aloud. Sometimes he was pensive and quiet, but most of the time they would talk about mysteries and detective stories, since they were his favourite. He'd been the only person who hadn't completely dismissed her at the beginning of the year, and she held that close.

The worksheet itself was extremely simple, and that was due to her natural ability to pick up languages quickly. After she'd finished it, the bell let out a long buzz and Kory quickly picked up her things, intending to leave the classroom as fast as possible. She found herself staring at her locker door, moments later, stuck in the crowded hallway.

It was busy, amongst the loud conversations between students. Dumping her books into her locker, she tightened her ponytail and took a deep breath. She'd promised herself that this week was going to be different, and that she was going to make a proper effort to regain her old friends. And it had worked with Kitten, but most people still resorted to derogative terms – _slut_ being their favourite – and the whispers never stopped. They tangled themselves during class, hiding behind her every step in the hallway, eyes darting to the graffiti.

"That's Kory Anders," the whispers always said, "she's the whore who's addicted to sex."

Even then, when she was standing at the side of the hallway minding her own business, Kory could still sense the occasional glance focused on her, the words that slipped out when they thought she wasn't listening. The rumours tugged at her clothing, yanked at her hair, tried to trip her up at every possible step.

Sighing softly, she picked up the remnants of her homework and placed them gently in her bag. The hallway was beginning to clear up – kids desperate to escape the four walls that entrapped them for seven hours each day.

Dick was nowhere to be seen, and that fact seemed to crush her entire being. She didn't know why she was putting all of her faith and expectations on him suddenly; he was just a friendly teenage boy, not a knight in shining armour. And she was Kory Anders – not a damsel in distress.

She found herself at the gym doors, yawning slightly. Mae was already there, dressed like a traffic light, cheerfully staring at the door. She had a wide smile on her face, and watched as Kory walked towards her.

"Oh cupcake, you're here!" Mae cried out, and Kory's expression waivered slightly. "And you brought your friend again!"

Kory spun around to see Dick who purposely avoided her gaze. She sighed softly and brought her attention back to the lady standing beside her. If he didn't want to talk to her, then she would try to give him his space, regardless of how she felt about the matter.

Dick asked, "Where the others?" a question that Kory had simultaneously been wondering too. Apart from Sawyer in the corner, with his brown tufts of hair that curled slightly at the end, there wasn't anybody else present. She knew that Johnny Ranchide and Billy Numero were both required to be here, but Toni and Betty who were there last time had only been doing a one-time thing.

Mae beamed. "Johnny and Billy are such good students that the Principal cancelled the rest of their school community service. They won't have to do any more work."

Dick crossed his arms. "But they didn't even do anything!" he said, looking extremely angry.

Kory silently agreed; last time the two boys had ditched the activities halfway and hadn't come back. It was really unfair that they got lose from the work, whereas Dick and Sawyer (mainly the former) actually helped her with cleaning up the graffiti. Plus, it meant that it would take longer to clear with a small number – a fact that made her stomach churn and caused her to cough quietly.

"Now, now, dear," Mae said sternly, "It's the principal's orders, and there's nothing you can do about it." Her tone had taken a sinister turn, eyes scowling fiercely. "If you want to complain, then don't blame me when things go sour."

Dick exchanged a look with Kory; radiating bewilderment and concern. Mae only smirked, slapped her thigh and then guffawed loudly.

"It's only a joke!" she squealed, her deep laugh echoing throughout the gym. But Kory shifted on her feet, uncomfortable. "We have to get started quickly," Mae then said when nobody gave any indication that they believed her. She made her way to the centre of the gym where buckets, sponges and gloves were all laid neatly into three lines, as if she'd guessed that there were only going to be three of them who actually came.

Mae began to explain the game plan for the next hour, but Kory was momentarily distracted by Sawyer who'd chosen to stand right beside her and place his arm around her shoulders. She glared at him, and pushed his arm to the side, but it snaked upwards again, finding itself around her hips instead.

Kory let out a warning sound from the back of her throat, and the boy backed off immediately, holding his hands up in surrender. Dick had gone to find something for Mae, the latter mentioning she needed to find the janitor for something, leaving the pair alone. As soon as Mae's retreating figure had disappeared, Sawyer sidled up to her, holding a cocky smile that she had slowly grown to hate.

"What's up?" he asked, and she tried to find something to busy herself with. It took a second for her to figure out the true meaning of the question – English still managed to trip her up occasionally, and the slang that teenagers loved using only worsened it.

"Nothing," she said, the answer coming out a little too harshly than intended.

Sawyer was looking at her expectantly and she didn't know why. He bit the bullet ten seconds later, waggling his eyebrows. "So, when do you wanna do it?"

Kory decided that trying to straighten out the buckets was the only interesting thing to do in the room. "Do what?" she questioned, her eyebrows creasing in confusion.

He gave a mock sigh, resembling a crushed kitten. "Well it's pretty obvious," he explained, "and you didn't really need to tell the whole school about it, but if that's how you wanna play, then I'm down for it."

Sawyer wasn't making any sense at all. "What did I tell the whole school about?" Kory quizzed, trying to find out what in X'hal's name he was talking about.

He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and in his it probably was. "You told the whole school that I slept with you last Friday."

Her mouth opened and closed, the words stuck at the tip of her tongue. She wanted to scream and yell – more rumours that would only worsen her already minute number of friendships. As much as she tried not to care about what others said about her, there were some things that slipped past her barriers and smashed right into her heart.

 _"What?!"_ she finally cried out, distressed. "I _never_ said that!"

The boy looked at her as if she was crazy – and by now, Kory felt like she was – before shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging dramatically. "Oh," he summed up, before briskly walking closer to her. "Do you still wanna?"

Kory almost burst into tears, due to sheer exasperation. Her voice was increasing in volume, and her nails dug into the palms of her hands. " _No_!"

Sawyer rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall. "Somebody's being a little _stressy_ ," he noted, and it took all of her self-control not to punch him right there on the tip of his jaw, wiping off his rude expression.

Before she could even fumble around for a poor excuse of a reply, Dick came back into the gym, carrying a baffled expression. And she guessed he had every right too – in her frustration she'd knocked over all three of the buckets and kicked a glove to the other side of the court, leaving a large disarray of mess in the centre.

He sounded confused, which was a cute look on him. "Is everything okay?"

Sawyer looked like he was going to whip out a cigarette and start puffing it in the corner. "Fine," he answered for her.

Dick didn't sound convinced, but he ignored the matter. "Mae says we can start on the front wall, since that's the most obvious one," he said. "I've already got all of the remover out there; I just need the buckets, sponges and gloves."

"Cool." Sawyer responded, and Kory bit her tongue. He didn't seem interested or impressed at all; the latter was probably because of Dick's family, but it could also be due to a number of reasons. People found it hard to be friends with him – his background was either too intimidating, or they disliked his guardian's way of living. Kory had never found a reason to befriend him, having been fortunate to stay in her close-knit group of friends, but now that was over and she was discovering how nice he truly was.

Apart from the whole idea of ignoring her. That wasn't exactly pleasant.

Sometimes Kory felt like she spent more time wandering the hallways aimlessly than actually learning, and it had begun to become more prominent due to her unorthodox start of the year. She washed through the sea of people, nervous smiles abundant. It was different walking in silence through the empty corridors, though. She found it more relaxing.

They found the wall very quickly, and as soon as the gloves tightly hid her fingers, and the sponge was gripped by her hand, she started to get rid of her name. She knew that they weren't going to finish the whole wall by the end of the day, and she'd already made up her mind that at least her name would be free from the cruel words.

Sawyer seemed to take everything at a slow pace, chewing gum and moving languidly between strokes. Her sponge traced the delicate curve of the ' _K_ ,' before rubbing into the surface; it came out stained in black. The chemicals left a bitter smell around her hands, resembling a sharp odour of garlic mixture in with board pen. It choked the back of her throat, and she had to use her arm to cover her mouth.

"What the fuck is in this thing?" Sawyer asked, copying her action.

Dick coughed and scowled, wrinkling his nose. "I don't even know."

Kory refused to speak, and only scrubbed harder, wincing when even her arm couldn't protect her from the smell any further. The four letters of her name were beginning to fade slowly, but her surname still stood, proud and tall, taunting her. Whoever had written this, had taken great pleasure in making sure that each letter was as big as possible, and her arm began to tire.

She switched positions, letting her weight rest against the wall and allowing a small yawn to pass from her lips. Dick had started on the opposite side, and the faint silvery outline of the word 'slut' (completing the wonderfully biting phrase: _Kory Anders is a slut_ ) was still visible, the marker having left cracks in the paintwork. She shot him a thankful smile but he only stared unsurely at her.

Mentally running through their list of interactions, the redhead found no fault in any of them. If she was being precise, then maybe the way she had rudely run off in the morning could have offended him, but Dick didn't seem like that kind of guy to get hung up on tiny details. He was a detective, but not a horrible person.

Sawyer finally dropped his sponge in his bucket, groaning loudly, sounding defeated. "I give up! I'm gonna go find some air freshener." The brown haired boy stepped closer, lowering his voice, but not enough that Dick couldn't hear. "Wanna come with and make out with me in the janitors closet?" he teased, but he still sounded slightly serious.

She did the only totally acceptable thing in that moment: made a severe threat about kicking him in the crotch if he continued to act like that, and then crossed her arms angrily.

Dick watched by the side, a sense of interest piquing. He'd still held out for the hope that Kory wasn't a totally trashy friend – that maybe the rumours about her were just rumours. And her comment seemed to be confirmation. When Sawyer glared at him, trying to show off his alpha male skills (and failing horribly at it), Dick only picked up his sponge and continued to clean the wall, still closely listening into the conversation.

Sawyer left five seconds later, and Kory didn't say anything. She resumed her work, and he could tell how desperate she was to get rid of the graffiti. He understood her situation clearly from experience – sometimes the easiest way was to delete all evidence and pretend it never happened. Obviously that wasn't the healthiest of activities, but it brought temporary needed relief.

"Dick?" she finally asked softly, resembling a lost kitten. "Are you ignoring me?"

Kory looked up at him, with her pretty green eyes. He swallowed, feeling his throat constrict.

She didn't give him any time to answer because she stepped forward, looking apologetic. "Because if you are, whatever I did, I am _so_ sorry for hurting you. I like being friends with you, and I don't want some little thing that I do _not_ even know about to come in between us."

He smiled at her honesty, and had enough courage to explain. "I was just pissed at you, even though I had no proper reason why. It was probably 'cause Kitten told me that you were cheating with her boyfriend and I lost any respect for you. But now that turned out to be another silly rumour, and I'm standing here feeling like the biggest idiot on planet Earth."

She only giggled, eyes twinkling. "You're not the biggest idiot on Earth. Maybe just the biggest one in this school."

Her laugh was infectious, and he found himself copying her movements. They were two seventeen year olds holding sopping wet sponges filled with harmful chemicals, laughing loudly in an empty school.

Until she stopped suddenly, and cocked her head. "Kitten told you?" she asked, and he suddenly felt bad. It probably wasn't the best feeling in the world, knowing your best friend was spreading rumours about you.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"During lunch?" She asked another question, sighing. His nod was enough to confirm her misery, and she put a sorrowful hand to her cheek and briefly closed his eyes. He was terrified she would start sobbing; Dick Grayson didn't know how to deal with crying girls.

"We had just made up before lunch had started," Kory complained. "X'hal, the first day of the week is already going horribly wrong!"

She was on the verge of tears, her lips parted and curled downwards; she bit her bottom lip in annoyance. Dick panicked, and felt the same wave of desperation running through his veins. But he calmed himself down immediately, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay," he reassured, and the next two words slipped out before he could control them. "I promise."

That seemed to calm her down, and she exhaled quietly. "I'm sorry," she apologised, "that was extremely uncalled for."

He grinned at her, "It's fine Kory."

The redhead scratched her nose, blushing slightly. "I think we should finish our work," she suggested.

He nodded, picking up the sponge and chucking the second one towards her. She caught it and laughed, tempted to throw it back at him, but ultimately deciding against it.

"Sounds like a plan." Dick agreed, and the pair set off.


	11. eleven

Author's Note: _I'm just celebrating the fact that we've reached the eleventh chapter! It's been a sort of curse for me - I've written countless short stories but I can never get past the tenth chapter! But today I have, so congratulations to me (and congratulations to you if you've read this far)! Also, this chapter was originally going to cover more, but I love writing Dick and Kory talking together. I don't know why, but I really enjoy it. :)_

 _There's another reason why I've made sure I posted on time this week - I don't think I'll be able to post next Sunday. The reason being I've got my German Controlled Assessment in Writing (which counts for a significant part in my GCSE) and that's my biggest focus right now. I'm terrified, even though it's a relatively short exam, and isn't that hard._

 _Anyways, I loved all of the comments on the last chapter - please keep them coming! Oh and I've used the words 'smile, grin, and laugh' about a thousand times, not to mention the gratuitous overuse of semi-colons (;)._

 _\- lots of love from Val_

 _p.s: in case you were wondering, a lot of this was inspired by 'easy A' which is my ultimate all-time favourite movie._

 _y'know what all of the characters are doing? slutshaming? don't do it! :D_

* * *

 ** _Chapter Eleven: Yet Another Rumour_**

* * *

When Dick came to her locker, four days later on Friday, he looked like a total mess. Albeit, a very cute one with unruly hair, slightly rosy cheeks and a half-lidded gaze, but a mess nonetheless. He sneezed twice, scratched his head and let out a moan that resembled one of a zombie. She tried not to laugh, but he was the embodiment of adorable.

"Hey," he said in between snivels. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there yesterday afternoon. I've been suffering the effects of a nasty cold." He coughed twice and she bit back a smile as she leant against the lockers.

Truthfully she'd missed him, but she knew that revealing the truth would only upset him further. Kory liked talking to him – he radiated friendliness – and most of the time he was confident, apart from the rare occasion where he was a stumbling dork. He would playfully tease her, and the topics of their conversations ranged from sports (he played football in his spare time) to colours (his favourite was either black, blue or red).

Kory shook her head, her fingers tangling in her hair as she straightened out a stray knot. "It's fine," she teased, "I didn't even notice you were missing."

"Oh ha ha," Dick shot back, with the same air of light-heartedness that Kory currently had. He clutched a hand to his chest, sighing in mock hurt. Another smile began to tug on the corner of his lips. "I think my heart just died a little."

She laughed freely then, letting all of her previous inhibitions disappear with each sound. Dick laughed too; the hand dropped and casually brushed her own. It was for a second, but she marvelled at the warmth of his hands. She'd heard several proverbs about warm hands equating to a warm heart, and she felt that this particular one definitely applied to Dick.

When their laughter died down, Dick sneezed again, covering his mouth with his hand. He moaned quietly, lips parting slowly as if to conceal the sound. Dark circles outlined his steely blue eyes, ones that were surrounded by long lashes. She'd never spent that much time observing somebody's eyes, but it was clear that his were gorgeous.

"You still are _very_ ill," Kory noted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Why did you come in?"

Dick joked, "For you," and there was this strange feeling that appeared in her stomach. It wrapped around her chest and squeezed tightly, and she felt like she couldn't breathe for a second. He was still smiling at her and she returned the favour, a little uneasy.

"I'm so flattered," she replied playfully. It was the nature of their relationship; light jokes with flirtatious undertones.

Dick coughed once more, and his face scrunched up painfully. She rummaged through her locker, looking for a small purple bag. "Do you want a cough sweet?" she asked, holding the small packet in one hand.

He smiled sheepishly and nodded, before clutching his head in pain again. "Yeah. Thanks." Taking a small sip of his water bottle, he swallowed the pill and then scratched the back of his neck. Kory had noticed that it was a common gesture he performed, especially whenever he talked to her. It was tempting to ask him about it, but not in his current state: teetering on the edge of discomfort.

"I," he hesitated, "I actually came to ask you something. Could I borrow your English notes for yesterday? I missed the class and I wanna make sure I've got everything before the assessment on Tuesday."

Technically the work was supposed to have been done in partners, but most people hadn't bothered after the first lesson. Ms Carlton hadn't commented on the lack of teamwork, and since they were all studying the same sections, it didn't really matter. Kory nodded in agreement, but then winced when she realised that everything was sitting on her desk in her bedroom.

"I don't have them with me," she admitted, frowning. "I'm so sorry, Dick."

He copied her expression, eyebrows straightening in discreet annoyance. "I was gonna call you about them last night," he mentioned nervously, "but then I realised I don't actually have your number."

She cocked her head, letting her hair fall to one side. Dick watched it with mild fascination; it was like a rose waterfall. He tried not to stare, but there was something captivating about the way her curls unravelled slightly, before closing up again.

"I can sort out that problem for you," she said, quickly turning to her locker. He was greeted with a splash of curls as she whipped her head to the side, smelling strongly of strawberries and cinnamon (which, although sounded a little dubious, managed to compliment one another). Her locker was pink and purple; it had little compartments on the door that held pens, pencils and erasers; there were also magnets and a mirror. It oozed the word 'girly' having everything from sparkly folders to a sequined makeup bag.

She took a pen and used her left hand to hold his own. Her hands were really soft and warm, and Dick tried to not let his mind wander on the suggestive activities Kory could do with them. It took five seconds for her to write down her number on the inside of his palm, complete with a pink heart.

At the realisation of her little doodle, Dick's cheeks heated up and he forced himself to focus on the tiling of the floor. It was laminated cornflower-blue in the shape of little diamonds; tying in with the rest of the colour scheme currently present in the large hallways.

"There," she said, and he swore that she was flirting with him. "Now you can call me up whenever."

He shuffled awkwardly, clearing his throat as if it was going to resolve the situation. "Are you free any time this weekend?" he asked, "'cause then I could come and pick the notes up."

She shook her head, and Dick was incredulous, trying to figure out what sort of hobbies she had that prevented her from allowing his visit. "I've got volleyball practice on Saturday morning," she explained, "lunch with some of my friends, and volunteering in the afternoon, then I have to drop off Ryan for a sleepover. On Sunday I'm shopping in the morning, I have gymnastics afterwards and ballet in the afternoon."

He pulled a face, trying to figure out if he could fit a ten-minute session anytime into her hectic schedule. There was Sunday evening, but Bruce had a rule about that particular time session being used for family only. And Dick didn't really fancy the idea of driving in the darkness for a handful of English notes.

"Wait!" she cried out, looking thoughtful. "I'm free after seven on Saturday. You could come over then."

He was readily prepared to accept her offer, when the reminder of Bruce's shitty cocktail party appeared in his head, and he resisted the urge to bash his head against the lockers angrily. "I can't," he said simply, not caring to elaborate.

"Oh," she summed up. "I'll be home alone since my parents are going to some business party."

There were embers, little flickers of hope, and Dick grasped at them. "Business party?" he asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, even though his heart was doing a little somersault in his chest.

Kory nodded, "At some manor or something." Her face scrunched up (it was really cute) as she struggled to remember the details, eventually shrugging in apology. "I can't really remember."

"Wayne Manor?" he jumped in for her.

She lit up, nodding eagerly. "Yeah!" her eyes twinkled slightly. "How did you know?"

He thrusted his hands into his pockets. "Unfortunately I'll be there too; forced to endure the worst three hours of my life."

Kory bit her lip. "It can't be that bad," she reasoned.

"It is," Dick assured her. "There's nobody there around my age, and most people get drunk and end up getting into arguments about whose horse is bigger than whose. Bruce expects me to smile even though everybody treats me like a little kid, and I always have to get dressed into an uncomfortable suit." For added emphasis, he tugged the hemline of his t-shirt.

She only looked entertained, which wasn't the reaction he was hoping for, so Dick opened his mouth to continue his rant before an idea materialised right in front of him. It was risky and he'd never tried it before, but it was becoming hopelessly more endearing as the seconds trickled by.

"You said your parents are coming," he confirmed, smirking slightly. "So bring along your notes and come too. We can have a study session or something."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you had to attend the party," she pointed out.

"As long as I'm present for the first and the last twenty minutes, Bruce doesn't really mind that much."

Kory only laughed. Dick scrambled to figure out her emotions; she wasn't convinced the plan would work, and he didn't blame her. It sounded a little out there, but he was Dick Grayson: master extraordinaire, and he was determined to rope her along. She bit her lip again, and her eyes narrowed slightly, causing her thick eyelashes to press together. He'd never noticed how long or dark they were.

Eventually she gave a curt smile, shaking her head in amusement. "You can't just invite me to your party, Dick."

"I can!" he argued back, flashing her his best smile, and using all of his energy to muster a mixture of flirtation and charm. It seemed to work momentarily, as her resolve weakened. "You should come."

Her eyebrows lowered, and she looked less defensive.

"Come for me? Please?" It was only when he realised how his previous questions could be interpreted, and the way Kory's cheeks were turning a dark shade of crimson, he winced and tried again. "You should _attend_ ," he said, picking his words a little more delicately. "It would be awesome."

She still didn't seem entire on board with the idea, and he held her hand, ignoring the quickening of his heartbeat. "Please?"

Kory looked down at her hand, and he dropped it immediately, embarrassed. He moved his own so that they dangled from his sides, missing the warmth of hers. "Fine," she agreed, smiling prettily. "But if Bruce Wayne kicks me out because I wasn't invited, I will never forgive you!" she joked, grinning.

"He won't," Dick said seriously, even though it was obvious that her comment was meant to be taken in a light hearted way. "I promise."

Rolling her eyes, Kory found it impossible not to giggle quietly.

Changing the subject, the black haired boy tried to sound as casual as possible. "Uh, speaking of invitations," he mentioned, "um, I don't know if you wanted a formal invite, but if you ever wanna come sit with me and my friends during lunch, our table does have an extra space."

Kory gave one of her pretty smiles, the ones where her eyes sparkled and her whole body seemed to smile with her; the ones that made his palms feel slightly sweaty, and he still didn't know why. "That is really sweet of you." she said.

He didn't know why he was so hopeful. "You'll sit with me today then?" he asked.

Nodding, Kory adjusted a stray curl that had gotten tangled in her woollen jumper. The top hung loosely off her shoulder and matched her black miniskirt – Dick had to admit Kory had guts to keep on dressing like she usually did regardless of what people were saying about her. "I have got to go to class now," she mentioned, sounding slightly awkward. "I'll see you in Geometry?"

Her finger absentmindedly twiddled the same lock of hair, wrapping it around.

Dick nodded, "yeah." He waved her a small goodbye, and decided that finding his locker would be part of his plan of action. He sneezed twice, and even though he felt like a teddy bear in a tumble dryer, he didn't regret coming into school at all.

Alfred, as much as Dick loved him, resembled more a grandmotherly role than one of a butler. He'd constantly swatted and twittered around the sick boy, bringing him soup (which tasted delicious), medicine and anything he requested (within reason, of course). But Dick didn't like people worrying about him, and Alfred's overbearing nature only made recovery just a little bit more tedious.

Kory moved away again, and he found himself doing it again. Staring at her ass like some weirdo. He didn't even know how it worked, but sometimes he would zone out and end up taking a sneak peek at her breasts, and then immediately feel bad because he was being a pervert.

Digging around his bag for a tissue, Dick tried his best to hold in an incoming sneeze. His headache had started to dissipate, meaning that he was less prone to collapsing on the floor from the irritation, and he didn't feel as dizzy as he had in the early hours of the morning. Unfortunately, his throat still felt dry and it randomly contract at times when he hadn't drunken enough water. Cool liquid stung the back of his throat, leaving him with room-temperature bottled water: one of the most disgusting concepts ever introduced to mankind.

He was too busy struggling towards his locker, to notice how oncoming students suddenly turned to shy whispers whenever he passed them. He'd dealt with this during freshman year, but most people minded their own business and didn't talk to him. It was only when a crowd of sophomore girls let out sharp gasps at his appearance, did he frown and try and figure out what was wrong.

Dick's first instinct was to make sure his nose wasn't running, and when he'd done a full appearance check, he reckoned it was probably due to Kory. Unlike the rest of their horrible High School who were hell bent on ignoring the redhead, he was one of the few seen frequently talking to her. He knew one of the other guys – Vic Stone – was also one of her prominent friends, but he wasn't sure how many she actually had.

And that was a shame, because Kory was a genuinely sweet girl.

" _That's Dick Grayson!_ " a blonde girl whispered, the volume of her voice catching his ear.

Turning towards her, he tried to discern words between the gasps and scandalised sounds, but it wasn't exactly easy. After twenty seconds had passed, he gave up and continued rummaging through his locker for his geometry book.

Wally greeted him, ten minutes later, when the heir of Wayne Enterprises had given up trying to understand teenage girls and their gossip. He'd decided to go to class early – a first for him, which had been unhelpfully mentioned by his best friend. Dick didn't even like Biology, which meant that Wally's comments only irked him more.

"Hey boss," the redhead greeted, giving a two-finger salute and smirking slightly. But his expression quickly morphed into something more worried. "Uh, you okay?"

Dick shook his head. Even then, people were unsubtly referring to him: fingers pointing, eyes darting, his name frequently slipping out of conversations.

"There's something going on," he mentioned, "everybody keeps looking at me."

Wally swallowed, sounding sheepish. "…yeah," he confirmed, "apparently there's some rumour about you making its rounds but I still have no idea what it is."

Dick couldn't care less about what people were saying, but there was a mild interest that piqued inside of him. It wondered what sort of stories people had made up about him; the tales they'd taken the time and effort to create. High school kids were inventive, and although sophomores were the most vicious, seniors tended to to be more explicit and usually more realistic since they were taught to be more skeptical.

He finally shrugged, and sat on the bench. Unlike the rest of the classrooms, the scientific subjects had little tables that were shaped like the letter 'l' and had sinks and locked cupboards with chemicals in. The surface was a light-coloured granite with a laminated top; it matched the walls and the floor. The whole room reeked of salt, with the occasional hints of sickly sulphur.

His bag dumped on the floor, Dick took out his pencil case, folder, and white lab coat. They were observing the effects of x-ray and other types of radiation on plants, which sounded like the most soul-destroying experiment he had ever heard. He scratched his head and looked around the classroom, just in time to watch Xavier stroll in as if he owned the place.

Dick didn't really pay attention to the other seniors, unless they did something particularly eye catching or weird. But Xavier was one of the few people that frequently rubbed himself the wrong way; the boy had no respect for authority. It was frustrating sharing lessons with an asshole who talked back to teachers and frequently pissed off the staff. For some unknown reason, the rest of the class sympathised with the idiot, and Dick chalked that down to the rebellious streaks still present in most people.

Xavier had that cool glint in his eye, complete with the irritatingly smug smirk. Refusing to break eye contact, the boy dumped his leather jacket on the back of his chair and made his way to Dick. The latter's fists went to his sides – there was something about his overall presence that made Dick want to punch him in the face, even when the guy hadn't said anything.

People flocked towards Xavier like mindless sheep, and it was clear that they wanted to see what was going to go down. It wasn't any of their damn business, Dick scowled, one hand possessively resting on his chair. Wally was standing beside him – the soldier ready to fight for his general.

" _Grayson_ ," Xavier sneered threateningly.

Dick stood his ground. "Xavier," he replied, his disinterest filtering through his usage of tone.

Then, in a surprising turn of events, Xavier patted Dick on the back as if he was greeting an old friend. He looked harmless, pleased even. "Great job, man. You achieved what most of us only hoped about. What's she like?"

Still reeling from the confusion, Dick strung the sentences together in his head, waiting to figure out what they meant. Xavier was being exasperatingly vague: he was definitely talking about something sexual but the 'she' could refer to any female member in their school. If he took a proper guess, he would say it was probably something to do with Kory since most conversations tended to lead back to her.

Even then, Dick still asked his question. His eyebrows crinkled. "What are you talking about?"

"Everybody knows," Xavier revealed, as if that would answer his question or make any inkling of sense. He probably assumed that Dick would understand and happily revel in whatever glorious achievement Dick had made. Except the detective was still clueless, shaking his head.

"Huh?"

"Everybody knows," Xavier reaffirmed, then continued, "that you're paying Anders to fuck you. What's she like?" he repeated his question.

Even if the statement was correct (and it wasn't) then Dick wasn't going to exactly spill was he? Apparently that had never crossed Xavier's mind, and the older boy nudged Dick with his shoulder. "So?" he pressured, waiting for a response.

Dick forced himself to inhale. "I'm not sleeping with her."

"You're definitely fucking her," Xavier said. "Why else would you spend that much time with that slut?" He was leering, intentionally insulting Kory just to push Dick's buttons. But the protege of Bruce Wayne wasn't an idiot, and he wasn't going to fall for the childish tactics.

Dick ignored him, and turned around to sit at his seat. Xavier stood there, fuming. "Don't be a fuckhead. Just 'cause you're getting pussy doesn't make you better than the rest of us."

His vulgarity only pissed Dick off even more – because treating women like objects (or simply referring to them by their sexual organs for _fuck's sake_ ) was one of the most disgusting things ever. Dick only smirked, knowing that his response was going to anger the guy even more. "Whatever," he brushed off, focusing his attention elsewhere.

"Dickhead," Xavier retorted, and Dick only snorted at his originality. The result was a fierce glare from the former, before he rudely stalked back to his seat. Their teacher had come: Mr J. Mumbo who had an obsession with animals (particularly bunnies and tigers). From the moment he entered the room it was evident that the elderly man was in a bad mood, which only served to further aggravate many members of the class.

The gentleman put his briefcase down, and his expression didn't change. "It's time to get to work. Partner up please."

* * *

Kory hadn't had the chance to actually talk to Dick in Geometry, and by the time the class had officially started, she'd already been catcalled twice. It still bothered her, the way she was treated like an object for people to gawk at. Dick obviously had wanted to talk to her; when he'd come into the classroom, he'd locked eyes with her and began to make his way towards where she was sitting. But the professor had already started teaching, and she'd lost the opportunity to talk to her friend.

Dick sat in the second row, two seats away from her. She tore her gaze away from him and picked a bright green pen from her pencil case. Geometry was usually a breeze, but their latest topic had been a little hard to wrap her head around and she'd decided that her notes needed to be a little more detailed.

The voice of their teacher was starting to fade out, and other issues held the attention of her mind. It was easy to zone out. The vanilla tone easily got lost between her daydreams. Lana Scholey, the blonde girl who sat beside her, suddenly tapped Kory's arm, sounding more irritated than usual.

"Hey _slut_ , your fuckbuddy's got a note for you," she whispered, blue eyes narrowing. She held a calculating expression and a small piece of paper in her right hand.

Kory took the folded note, marvelling at the lack of creases. Slowly opening it, she was greeted by the surprisingly neat handwriting of Dick:

 _There's a really vicious rumour going around about you and me._

 _Just ignore it._

 _\- D_

He was watching her, waiting for her reaction. She looked up and smiled, before writing her own response, complete with a tiny heart in the corner of the paper, intended to show her happiness.

 _Thank you for the warning._

It was sweet that he'd given her a heads up instead of letting her struggle on her own, but then she realised that's the kind of boy he was. Dick Grayson was sweet. He was thoughtful. He was kind.

She guessed that Lana's previous rudeness was due to whatever people were saying about her. Kory quietly turned to the girl beside her, who was hiding her phone under her desk, probably texting somebody. "Lana?" she called out softly. "Could you pass this note back please?" She added a small smile, hoping that the girl wouldn't be too angry.

Lana gave out an exaggerated sigh, and flicked the ends of her hair. "Fine," she whispered back, sounding disinterested. Snatching the paper, she passed it to the boy next to her. He, in return, scowled at Kory but gave it to Dick regardless. She felt bad for passing notes and dragging the other two into her schemes, but there wasn't anything else she could do.

"Thank you," Kory whispered once more to Lana, who only rolled her eyes in response.

Dick almost opened the note, but then Mr LeBlanc came up towards him and he stuffed it in his jeans pocket. The young teacher looked suspicious, and eventually walked back to the front of the classroom. Kory let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and picked up her pen in an attempt at looking like she was engaged.

By the time the class had finished, Dick and Kory had managed two things: filling up a full sheet's worth of messages between the pair, and aggravating the two people sitting between them. She picked up her books and neatly put them in her bag, catching his eye and sticking her tongue out at him playfully.

He did the same, finishing quicker and strolling towards where she was sitting. Teenagers were already filtering out of the door, reaching the hallways. As soon as her bag was on her shoulder, she briefly leaned against her desk and gave him a coquettish grin.

"So, what are they saying about us?" she flirted.

His cheeks took the same redness they did whenever she teased him, before he cooled slightly. "A various number of things actually." Dick was smiling now, capturing the same playfulness she had earlier demonstrated.

She put a finger to her glossy lips. "Let me guess…"

He sat on the desk beside her, his bag resting on the chair.

"It's about me and you, right?" she confirmed, wanting to make sure that her guess was backed up by proper evidence. When he nodded, she blew from her mouth slowly. Kory paused for a second, tapping her fingers against the table. "I'm dating you," she summed up, then shook her head. "Wait, no! I'm _sleeping_ with you," she amended.

Relief was the only feeling that she could properly describe when he smirked. "Yup. Apparently I'm paying you to sleep with me. And apparently you're cheating on me in a motel with a fourty-four-year-old guy, too." He counted off the rumours with his fingers. "Oh, we've also been together since eighth grade. And there's another rumour about you being pregnant with our secret love child, but yeah."

She laughed then, free and slightly delirious. "Wow," she summed up. "They _are_ very imaginative."

His voice softened slightly, and she knew that the next subject would touch a delicate matter. "Nobody's being an asshole to you, right?" Dick gave a lopsided grin, "'cause if they are, I'll beat them up."

Kory battered her eyelashes, and used her hand to fan herself. She resembled a southern belle, increasing the pitch of her voice and adding an accent for effect. "Dick Grayson. My _saviour_!" Regaining her composure, she put a hand on his shoulder. "Only the occasional comment. It's fine."

She didn't know what happened. But the tears suddenly pricked at her eyes, and she had to blink rapidly to make them disappear. It didn't make sense – Kory had been fine until now. Everybody had avoided her, but it meant that she hadn't had to endure their unhelpful comments. Of course, the situation on social media was different, but that didn't bother her.

"Hey," Dick's voice was gentle, "are you okay?"

She nodded vehemently, and the tears eventually stop blurring her vision. The aching in her throat didn't disappear though. "I'm fine," she lied. "A little tired." It was obvious he didn't believe her, but he didn't press either, and for that she was grateful.

Standing up, Dick winked. She needed the change of pace, and he seemed happy to give it. "So," he began, with the air of a kid standing in front of a candy store. "It's lunchtime."

She frowned, missing his point. "…and?" she trailed off.

He pursed his mouth in a self-satisfied smirk. "You're coming to sit with me, _right_?" Dick drew out the last word longer than the others, and she could only giggle in response.

"Of course," Kory replied.

"Good."

A lingering silence followed shortly, and the dark-haired boy used the opportunity to pick up his bag and string it lazily against his shoulder. "I need to go get my lunch from my locker first," he apologised, "but then we can go to my table and yeah...maybe we could do a little work on English if that's okay?"

She didn't know why she felt so disappointed at the mention of work. Her chest tightened, but she forced herself to exhale and bite her lip. " _My_ table?" Kory teased, calling him out.

They were walking through the hallways now, and he turned to her. "You know what I mean," he said, pulling a face. " _Our_ table then," he clicked his teeth, correcting himself.

There was something indescribable that occurred inside of her stomach. The way he said it, it indicated that she was special enough to be considered an owner of the table; she was special enough for him to mention her. It was, after all, a table, but the notion made her want to run through the hallways giggling like an idiot (which _wasn't_ a good idea, considering she was already skating on thin ice in terms of social status).

"Tell me about your friends," Kory asked. "I know who they are – Gar, Wally and Rachel – but I don't know anything about them except that Gar's a master prankster (and he's quite funny), and Wally's the fastest boy in school."

"Don't let Gar hear you," Dick remarked, "it'll already boost his already-growing ego, which is already a thousand times bigger than mine."

Kory blinked, the image of innocence. "Somebody has a bigger ego than you? _I_ didn't think that was possible."

"Hey!" he swatted mischievously. "I don't have a big ego."

"Sure," she drawled. "You _totally_ do not!"

Dick suddenly stopped walking, and she almost crashed into his side. "Your accent's really cute, you know. Do all Tamaraneans sound like that?"

Her heart did a thousand cartwheels, and she felt her cheeks heat up. He said it so nonchalantly, like it was a fact of the universe: the sky is blue, the grass is green and Kory Anders has a cute accent. "Um," she stuttered, searching for the words. "I don't…I don't know."

"Fair enough," Dick reasoned. "It wasn't exactly the easiest question, sorry."

Swallowing, Kory forced herself to keep walking, even though she didn't really know where his locker was. Eventually he stopped, and she was pleasantly surprised by the tidiness of his stuff. Sawyer had always had a messy locker; most boys in the school left food overnight and the whole corridor would usually smell of rotten lunch and sweaty gym shorts.

Dick had everything in small sections, with various coloured folders. He even had a spare pen section, and a little bag for his cute lunch box – which was red and green, kind of like a Christmas elf. It was adorable, really.

"What?" he asked, looking suspicious, when her lips curved upwards.

"Nothing!" she giggled, and he genuinely looked more confused. Which only served to worsen matters, because his confused face was extremely cute too.

The cafeteria doors loomed ahead, and Kory gulped nervously. She hadn't actually been in there since the first Monday of school – eleven days had passed. Eleven days since she had been publicly humiliated by her supposed best friends, and considered a social reject by all. Her grip on her bag tightened considerably.

"Ready?" Dick asked, and it was evident he knew how big of a step this was.

She looked as his sharp features and nodded. "Yeah."

The pair walked into the large cafeteria, and it felt like every person was watching her. Their expressions were cold, calculating, but she followed Dick to his table, refusing to make eye contact. They weaved their way through the tables, and the whispers were already catching like wildfire: people quietly murmuring about who she was.

Tables were spread out equally from each other, and most of them were full. She saw Kitten crossing her arms and huffing loudly; Toni raising her eyebrows; Karen Beecher shot her a confident smile.

She was only a couple of inches away from Dick when the cruel words were shouted. Kory did her best to ignore them, but the words had a habit of crawling under her skin and refusing to budge until she cried out in pain. They swirled around the room, appearing amidst the light chatter – most of it referring to herself or the rumours about her.

 _"Slut!"_

 _"Whore!"_

" _Dirty skank_."


	12. twelve

Author's Note: _longer chapters means longer to update! and what's this thing called an 'updating schedule?' *looks around guiltily* I don't think I've heard of it before. plus the second bit of this is a little rushed, so it'll probably be edited on a later date. love you all._

* * *

 ** _Chapter Twelve: She's Already Slept with the Whole Football Team_**

* * *

Kory froze, and her hands instinctively clenched the closest thing to her: the corners of her white skirt. A cool feeling ran through her body. Her cheeks stung and her skin tingled and everything sort of went numb. The whispers were getting louder, resembling a deep buzz.

Dick turned to her, murmuring softly.

"Ignore them," he said, and his warm hand suddenly clasped hers, "come on."

She blindly let him lead her, ignored the urge to run away and curl into a sobbing ball. The queue for the cafeteria was smaller than usual, and that meant that she wouldn't have to stand in front of everybody for long.

It was only when she noticed the guy standing in front of her, smirking slightly with crossed arms, did she want to recoil in horror. Sawyer, with his black shirt and his blue jeans and his green beanie.

He opened his mouth and her grip on Dick's hand tightened.

"You're a bit fake, aren't you?" Sawyer asked, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Keeping up this whole 'virgin Mary' image up when in reality you're one stop off from being a prostitute."

Kory's lips parted slightly, and the feeling was back again, except this time it was akin to having a bucket of ice thrown over her. She desperately fought oncoming tears and the lump in her throat only grew bigger.

Finally, she found her tongue again. "And I guess _you_ are still trying to insult people because it makes you feel better about yourself," she retorted, shaking with anger. Her accent had begun to slip through the cracks, making her feel more alien than usual. It didn't help that she could see the whole cafeteria casually staring at her, from the corner of her eye.

Dick was still standing beside her, a warning look evident on his sharp features. He hadn't said anything yet, and she was grateful that she was allowed to fight her own battles. His hand squeezed hers reassuringly, and although she knew it didn't really help with the image that people were conjuring up about her, she didn't care; it brought her a sense of calmness.

"Wow," Sawyer remarked, stepping forward. Kory naturally moved backwards, but she wasn't ready to lose this fight. "I didn't realise you were such a slut."

She muttered to herself, "because slut-shaming always solves problems," a little too sarcastically, and perhaps a little too loudly because suddenly Sawyer was standing a too close for comfort and Dick had dropped her hand. Her eyes narrowed in hopes of getting the unwanted boy to leave her alone, and she crossed her arms.

"What's the matter?" he taunted.

She found her tongue, eyes narrowing. "Just because I won't sleep with you, it does not give you the right to treat me like this."

Sawyer shrugged. "I don't know about that," he said, "I'm pretty sure you deserve everything that's been said to you."

"Don't be an asshole," Dick warned the other boy, and Kory almost melted at the sweetness of his actions.

The brunet sneered, "What are you going to do? Get your daddy to pay the school to get rid of me?"

Kory could tell from the way Dick's face scrunched up, that he was used to this. She'd only encountered it once or twice: money didn't necessarily equate happiness, especially when her parents were rarely around. Dick didn't even have any parents.

Sawyer grabbed at her arm, but she jerked it out of the way, just in time. The action made her elbow slam into Dick's chest, but he didn't seem to notice. She winced anyway, feeling bad, and bit her lip apologetically.

"Five seconds," Dick said, and she'd never heard him sound so serious before. His voice had become lower, and his darkening gaze coupled with his balled up fists, radiated intimidation. "I'm giving you five seconds to turn around and leave her alone."

The gentle hum of the cafeteria had begun again, but even then it felt like everybody was silently anticipating the next action. Kory's legs buckled slightly. She didn't want to be here, under their penetrating gazes. She let out a soft breath, and her cheeks tingled slightly. As sweet as it was that Dick wanted to protect her honour, Kory Anders knew how to defend herself.

Her fingers ached, and ever since Sawyer had started harassing her, they'd been begging her to collide with his face and send him flying into the salad bar. The brief mental image made her smile, but then the urge came again and she had to grit her teeth.

"And if I don't?" Sawyer asked, and his hands were moving quickly towards her again.

She was absolutely sick of him. He was grating on her last nerve – a lot of inconsiderate people who kept on judging her regardless of her personality were finding themselves on her last nerve – and his cocky attitude only made her want to slap him on the face.

Sawyer's cold fingers brushed her arm and it felt like a thousand different insects were crawling up her skin. Dick whispered something inaudible and then his fist was suddenly connecting with Sawyer's shoulder. Everything seemed to move in slow motion: the curving path Dick's arm made; the way Sawyer's mouth parted open in shock; the way his body suddenly moved backwards and the sudden silence that followed shortly.

Dick looked aggravated, his face contorted in frustration. Somebody shouted "Fight!" and then there was a mad dash as people ran towards the queue to find out what was going on. People shoved and pulled at Kory, whilst Dick was already going in for round two. Sawyer had a bloody lip from slamming into the metal bar beside the food station.

"I'm gonna fucking murder you, dickhead!" he shouted, and pounced towards him.

There was more shouting, and it looked like another punch was going to be thrown until a large figure stepped in between the pair. It was Vic, the only guy in the school that had the begrudging respect of each student. He was after all, the reason why Brookford High stayed top in the leagues.

Kory watched as Dick narrowly missed hitting Vic's left cheek.

"Don't," Vic finally said, and she wasn't sure who he was referring to. "Don't make a mistake that's gonna get you into trouble."

Dick seethed quietly. "He deserves it. Kory hasn't done anything to him, and yet he's being a total fuckhead."

Vic shook his head, "It doesn't matter man. I know he deserves it but two fights within a few weeks will end up in suspension and possibly expulsion."

Kory had almost forgotten about the first fight, and pang of guilt hit her stomach. Dick had already gotten into trouble because of her, and she really didn't want it to happen again. It wasn't fair for him to get dragged into her whirlpool of social chaos. He was a sweet guy, and didn't deserve dealing with idiots who were quick to jump to conclusions.

"We wouldn't want Brucie Wayne to get angry at little Dickie, do we?" Sawyer called out tauntingly, and Kory _really_ wanted to kick him. His bottom lip had split and puffed out awkwardly, and there was a purple bruise forming on the corner of his eye. Dick didn't have any noticeable bruises, with the exception of a growing red patch on his neck.

Vic almost growled, teeth baring. "You're not making things any better for yourself," he pointed out, sounding pissed, before turning back to Dick. "You don't need to listen to him."

There was a crowd of people that surrounded them, hanging on every last word. Most of the students had opted to watch the spectacle from their own seats. Kory briefly locked eyes with a dark haired girl – Rachel, or something along those lines – but she couldn't discern the expression on her face. She wasn't too sure about who the girl was, but Kory had seen her around Dick a few times and assumed she was one of his friends.

Rachel looked away, her eyes darting nervously, and Kory put her attention back on Vic. Sawyer was rubbing at the side of his face with the palm of his hand, and Dick's fists hadn't loosened up yet. She tried to send him a reassuring smile, but his focus was still on Sawyer. It looked like Dick was still prepared to punch the living daylights out of him, and she accidentally bit her tongue in worry.

"It's the truth though," Sawyer claimed, and her chest tightened in resentment. There were a few murmurs of agreement, and she didn't have the courage to turn around and glare at them fiercely. "She's a massive whore."

"She's _not_ ," Dick defended.

"You're only saying that because you're fucking her."

Dick threw his hands up in the air, and Kory only internally groaned. She was starting to get really angry – everything turning into shades of red – but she knew that any outburst would only further provoke the growing crowd. It was an uphill battle, trying to fight for herself.

"I'm not _fucking_ her! What the hell is wrong with you?" he cried out, obviously aggravated. " _God_ , I swear _you're_ the one making up all of the shitty rumours in the first place," he accused but Sawyer only sneered.

Vic crossed his arms, and Kory was relieved that he was on her side. He was an awesome Physics partner and carried a friendly air around him that was evident in everything he did. It felt like he was the older brother she'd never had, but less annoying and more caring. Plus, he was teaching her more about mechanics, which was really cool.

"Leave her alone," Vic added, and his hulking figure somehow still wasn't as intimidating as the glare radiating out from Dick's eyes. It was scary just how angry he looked.

She stood there angrily, body buzzing. But her throat had gone bone dry and she was a mess of emotions: a mixture of anger, sadness, frustration and helplessness. Especially when people's whispers ("I heard Kory's getting fucked by the History teacher – that's why she's getting A's in that class." and " _I_ heard that she's already slept with the whole football team and that's why Vic is on her side.") weren't very quiet.

Society was always so judgmental. It was easy to label her a 'whore,' to oppress her sexuality and almost glorify victim blaming in rape culture ("she deserved to get hurt because she's a whore"). It contributed to double standards because there were several senior guys who were praised for being 'players' and sleeping with girls, but the girls who _did_ sleep with them were labelled 'loose' and 'easy.'

It was disturbing how quickly everybody had conformed into this one idea, that Kory Anders was a complete and utter slut. Everything said about her was based on rumours, and she shuddered when the thought of how people would react when they heard news of an actual event that had occurred, entered her mind. Teenagers were vicious, but the fact that society fuelled all of this idealism, scared her.

Random people who'd she'd never talked to before slut-shamed her without a passing glance. People shouted derogatory terms in the hallway – one overenthusiastic junior boy had even tried to proposition her in between classes. She'd shut him down immediately of course, but the thought that everybody assumed she was open for business hurt more then any of the looks she had received.

Ryan was stressed too; he was constantly defending her in front of anybody who dared to even mention anything remotely negative. He had a short temper, sharp like their dad's and she knew that his tongue was going to get him into more trouble. Two more fights would ensure that his next suspension would be longer, and then they wouldn't bother warning him anymore. The school board would just expel him and ruin his academic career wholly.

And although she'd probably mentioned it in her thoughts a thousand times, Dick was one of the few people who hadn't ostracized her, and she loved him for that.

Sawyer uncrossed his arms, and leered at her, before opening his mouth to speak again. "What's the point of defending the slut?" he asked, and she noted that he couldn't even be bothered to use her name, just refer to her by insulting terms.

Kory wasn't even entirely sure why he hated her. It might have been a combination of Kitten, her rejection of him and his overall pessimistic attitude. Or maybe she'd offended him in some unknown way. Or maybe he just hated her, like ninety-nine percent of the school. If she was being honest, that was probably the most likely reason.

"Because maybe she hasn't done anything wrong?" Dick questioned, and she appreciated his tone of voice. "Don't be such a shitbag."

And then came the crushing blow. The one that make Kory her teeth clench together so hard that she was _sure_ the sound could be heard from China. Her nails dug into her palms and it took all of her strength not to strangle the creep in front of her.

"Whatever man," Sawyer waved off, starting to walk towards his table that consisted of Xavier, Mammoth, Jenny and two other students that Kory didn't really know. "Everybody knows she's gonna end up as a drugged-up prostitute."

The crowd dispersed alongside him, and it only her, Victor and Dick were left standing at the end of the queue. She swallowed painfully, and focused on the grey laminated floor that had speckles of blue, black and red on it. Refusing to look up, she counted the number of marks instead. Her palms stung, red marks appearing on them.

"You okay?" the football player asked Dick, who gently rubbed his own knuckles and flexed them.

Dick nodded, clearing his throat. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Vic moved to Kory, touching her shoulder lightly. "Kory, are you okay?" he asked, sounding concerned.

She couldn't reply. Her body was locked with anger.

When Dick prompted a soft "Kory?" she closed her eyes briefly. She could feel the tears sticking to her eyelashes, waiting to stream down her cheeks and onto the floor.

Dick tried again, and she let her hair fall in front of her eyes. Her voice wavered slightly, the anger dissolving into an odd sort of numbness that spread throughout her body.

Kory was so thankful when he murmured an agreement and gently took her arm from her side. The blue doors opened, and she was greeted by the clear hallway. Her stomach ached, but Kory wasn't sure if it was due to her emotions or due to hunger. She guessed it was a combination of both.

"Kor?" Dick asked, and she noted that he'd taken off the 'y' of her name. It sounded cuter, and the momentary distraction allowed her to regain her voice again.

She hummed an affirmative, refusing to brush her hair fully out of her face.

"Are you okay?" His voice was soft.

Shaking her head, the word poured out as quickly as the tears. "No," she choked out, "no I'm not."

Kory was so tired. Everybody hated her, they treated her like dirt even when she'd never done anything to offend them. It was suffocating, the words, the looks, the constant jeers.

The tears kept on flowing, representing every little thing that she'd heard: every little snide remark. She'd bottled it all up, and she couldn't physically hold it in anymore. Her face scrunched up, and she made tiny gasps for air which each passing sob. Her hands shook, and she acknowledged that Dick was saying something, but she was too lost to hear properly.

Her body slumped against the nearest locker, whilst the tears made tracts on her face. _X'hal_ , she was so tired of it all.

Eventually Dick's lips stopped moving, and his hands shifted to around her back. She hugged him tightly, and her face buried into his grey shirt, grabbing fistfuls of the material. She was slightly taller than him, meaning she had to stoop down slightly, but that was the least of her worries. His hands were in her hair, and he started to softly speak, his lips right beside her ear.

"It's okay," he soothed, "don't worry."

"I'm so tired of this," she admitted, in between sobs. She snivelled quietly, acutely aware that she was probably getting snot all over his t-shirt. That made her feel worse, and she only cried harder.

Dick hushed her gently, his fingers making little circles on her back. "I know," he comforted, "it's okay."

Her weeping decreased in volume, and she let the words wash over her like a wave. "I try," she started, and paused to bite back another sob. "I try so hard to become friends with everybody again, but they all hate me."

"I know," he repeated again, "but they're just being stupid."  
"It's so hard," she faltered.

"It is," he confirmed, "but you're doing an awesome job and I'm really proud of you."

She smiled, using her wrist to wipe at her eyes. He still hadn't let go of her, and she guiltily knew that she liked being so close to him. He smelt of blackcurrants and wood, which was an odd combination, but worked. There was something comforting about the way he hugged her; it was different from other people, but she still hadn't figured out why.

Eventually she stood back, and managed a weak smile. "I'm sorry for ruining your lunch break," she apologised.

Dick shook his head, giving a reassuring small laugh. "It's fine," he said, "as long as you're okay, my lunch was fine."

She cleaned away any remaining tears, and yelped in embarrassment when her stomach rumbled. Her cheeks flushed, and she felt herself redden. "I'm sorry," she apologised again, "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast."

He suddenly grabbed her hand, and walked into the heart of the hallway. "I've got spare food in my locker," he said, and when she gave him a confused look, he only grinned. "When you're friends with Wally who's constantly hungry, you tend to stock up."

Recognising the name, she nodded slowly. Wally West – he was the best runner the state had ever seen and the captain of the Track and Field team. He had red hair, and although he'd flirted with her once or twice last year, the impression she received from him was a friendly one.

Dick pulled out three packets of chips, two Snickers bars, a packet of peanut butter cookies, and a bag of mini breadsticks. She raised an eyebrow, and he gave her a sheepish look.

"Wally _really_ likes sugar," was the explanation she was given. "It's not exactly the healthiest choice, but I have some fruit too, so that should balance it out."

He had a slightly scared expression, as if she was going to reject him. It was really cute, and Kory mentally berated herself. It was becoming a really frequent habit now, referring to Dick Grayson as 'cute,' 'charming,' or even ( _X'hal forbid_!) 'attractive.' He _was_ perfect boyfriend material, she admitted, but the last boy she had liked resulted in her lying to a lot of people, and refusing to touch a drop of alcohol until she was actually legal.

"I do not think I will ever be able to thank you!" Kory said, as he passed her the breadsticks and cookies. She almost swore in Tamaranean – her previous thought process about the sexiness of Dick was making her nervous again, allowing her childish accent to shine out. Almost groaning out loud, she used the view of the quadrant to distract her instead.

The cafeteria and the subsequent adjoining hallways all surrounded a small patch of land in the middle, with the latter providing windows and white doors. There were a few tables to the left, a tree in one corner, and a couple of wooden benches in the middle. It was beautiful today, with the warm rays of the sun hitting the grass and brightening the whole area.

As he closed his locker, she asked, "Do you want to go sit outside?"

He glanced outside and nodded, holding his lunchbox. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

There was a faint September breeze that ran through the air, and Kory basked in the outdoors. She loved nature – it beat the plasticity of the high school students any day. Dick perched on the bench, and she joined him, munching on a cookie as she did so. She didn't think she'd ever eaten something so sugary before, but the flavour was almost addicting.

He unwrapped his sandwich, which was delicately made, and held it next to her hand. "Here," he offered, "take this. It'll taste better than any of that manufactured crap."

Kory shook her head, stealing another bite of the cookie. "It's your food," she pointed out, and quietly revelled at the fact that she was able to use contractions again, "you eat it."

"It's fine, really. I eat the same sandwich every day, so it's nice to have a variety," he insisted, trying to put the sandwich in her hand. She dropped her hand and put it by her side, but he picked it up again, trying to open it up so she would hold (and probably eat) his sandwich.

"Fine," she muttered quietly, before opening his sandwich and eating all of the tomatos, cucumber and lettuce. She returned it back to him, with battering eyelashes and the most innocent look she could muster. "Here. You have a different sandwich now."

He stuck his tongue out, but took it regardless. She popped another piece of tomato in her mouth, savouring the taste.

It was obvious he was watching her, because he raised an eyebrow. "You're a fan of tomatos?" he asked.

She nodded, giggling slightly. "Tomatos are one of the best things ever!" she exclaimed. "Them, and mustard."

He had that familiar crease between his brows indicating that he was confused, and it was really cute. "Wait," he asked incredulously. "Mustard?"

Kory nodded once more, munching on the carrot sticks he'd offered her. "Mustard is the best condiment to ever exist," she smiled, "and it tastes really nice if you have it with cherry tomatos because the sweetness and the tanginess fit together."

The crease didn't go away, and it was obvious he was only more baffled than ever. He shook his head, eyebrows raising. It was obvious he was trying to not offend her, and she appreciated the notion, even though it didn't really matter to her. "That's um," he struggled for words finally giving up, "…delicious?"

Kory laughed again, biting back a smile. He was even more cute when he acted shy. "It's a little odd, I know." she admitted, "but it works."

He scratched the back of his head, sheepish. "…yeah." Dick coughed twice, and he was starting to look ill again, eyelids drooping and cheeks turning red again. She hadn't heard him cough properly for at least twenty minutes, and she guessed that he was probably holding it in. Which was sweet and all, but she didn't want him to continue being sick.

Running a hand through his dark hair, Dick suddenly turned to look at her. She held his gaze for three seconds before raising her own eyebrows, her lips curving upwards in a worried smile.

"Dick?" she asked, waving a hand in front of him. "Are you okay?"  
His cheeks tinged red and the top of his ears followed suit. Clearing his throat, he took another small bite of his sandwich and nodded. "Yeah…" he trailed off, not giving a definite answer.

He was acting slightly odd, and she didn't really have anything to chalk it up to. And usually she was confident in the way she looked – she was pretty, she knew that – but she was starting to become self-conscious. Kory bit into another carrot stick and waited for him to continue.

"Bruce's adopting another kid next month," he finally said, and it was obvious he was in deep thought.

At first she wasn't quite sure to react, before her eyes widened and she felt herself smile. "Congratulations! That must be so exciting! What's their name?"

"Tim. Tim Drake. I've only met him a couple of times but he seems like a decent kid." Dick's shoulders slumped slightly. "He's an orphan too."

Of course Kory had heard the stories, but most people knew the vague details and she didn't feel comfortable snooping around for answers on the internet. She knew that he'd come from a circus background. Bruce Wayne had adopted him within a few weeks of his parents' death, raising the child as if he was his own. But the rest of the facts were a little hazy, and most people weren't interested.

"Is he anything like Jason?" Kory asked, remembering all of the stories Dick had told her about his younger brother.

Dick shook his head, "Not really. I didn't really get a chance to talk to him because I had to go to school. I don't think I'll be able to deal with another Jason."

Kory only smiled, and he looked back up at her. He took a few sips of his water bottle then tightly screwed the lid back on. "You've got just a young brother right?"

Her fingers curled to her sides. "I have also got a sister," she mentioned, and rippling feelings of jealously ran through her.

Everybody had loved Kim. She'd been class president throughout junior and senior year, and prom queen for four consecutive years. Although she'd dated a fair share of guys, nobody had judged her; in fact, most boys believed that it meant there was a bigger chance of dating her. Her older sister had been embarrassed to go to school with Kory, and it had taken the youngest daughter a few weeks to coax her out of her own shell.

Kim could flirt her way out of any situation. She'd been popular, pretty, confident, athletic and smart. The human embodiment of perfection in the eyes of all of the high school students, and Kory had lived in her shadow for a whole year. It was only when she had left, was Kory truly allowed to become her own person instead of "Kim's little sister."

Dick had obviously remembered, and that caused feelings of jealously to bubble in her stomach, and yet she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Kim, right?" he asked, but didn't probe any further. She appreciated that — most older guys when recalling her sister usually had a dopey grin on their faces, muttering something about how sexy she was.

"Mm," she nodded, eating the last of his carrot sticks.

She opened her mouth to say something, trying to avoid the bitter taste that had crept into her mouth. Anything would be better than being reminded how much of a lasting impression Kim had made on everybody.

He suddenly looked up again, regarding her with a serious look. "You're still coming tomorrow, right?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Of course," she said.

His face broke into a nervous smile, and his hand went back to his hair. "I haven't actually ever invited anybody to one of these before," he admitted, "so I just wanna make sure you're actually gonna be there. You'll be the only one to keep me sane."

Quietly, Kory reckoned they weren't as bad as he claimed. When she was younger, she'd been to a few parties that were along the same lines of the one she would be attending on Saturday, and most of them had been fun. She had been allowed to dress up prettily, straightening her hair and putting on expensive pairs of lovely shoes.

Of course, most of the adults had either ignored her or allowed her to talk about her hobbies, but she put that thought to the back of her mind. Memories of _Für Elise_ playing in the background, accompanied with a string quartet ran through her head, but she ignored them and focused on the boy sitting beside her. He was finishing off his meal, drinking another mouthful of water.

The fact that she was the first one he'd invited, made her heart twist, but then she remembered it was a study date (well, if she was being _really_ truthful, not even a 'date' but a 'session'). The fact still remained though, he'd wanted her there. For one of the first few times in her life, she felt like she belonged somewhere as opposed to drifting between the place of Kitten's best friend, and Kim's little sister.

Sneaking a glance at her phone to check the time, and then happily realizing she had fifteen minutes before class started, Kory tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Can we go to the library?" she asked. "I need to get a book out."

He was already putting his things back in his bag, nodding. "Yeah." He swung his bag over his shoulder, and she straightened out her skirt. "Let's go."

* * *

"Kory? It is dinner time!" her Mom called, and Kory reluctantly got off her bed. She folded the corner of her comforter, keeping care to make sure none of her school books had fallen off the side. Ribbons of light streamed into her room as the curtains were opened, and her homework was neatly placed on the small desk in the corner of the room.

Her bedroom was various shades of purple, with white carpet and a large bed in the middle. Lamps, posters and various other objects decorated the room, with a vanity table and a large mirror decorated with tiny lights that emitted a pink glow. A white wardrobe stood in the opposite corner, holding all of her shoes, dresses and other clothing.

It was only eight PM but they were in the first days of September and summer was still fresh. Biting back a yawn, Kory reluctantly trudged downstairs. The table was already set, and Ryan was sitting eagerly in his preferred place. She found her spot, grabbed a glass of water and waited for dinner to be served.

Her parents looked tired, and she guessed because they were busy sorting out the details of their next trip. They were going to back to Tamaran for a week, leaving her under the care of Gavin, their au pair. It sounded wonderful for them, going to visit their home country, and Kory felt sparks of resentment build up. She released them immediately, feeling even more guilty. Tamaran was her favourite place to be, and she hadn't visited it since the meagre age of eleven.

Dinner was salmon and rice, one of her favorites. It was common knowledge that Kim didn't really bother arriving for dinner, and that's why the family started immediately, silence creeping in as soon as the first spoonful was devoured. It was also common knowledge that her parents were upset with Ryan for getting into trouble, and although his suspension had finished, the disappointment was still churning within.

Their mother, graceful and charming, started the first attempt of conversation. "How was your day?" There wasn't a direct person she was referring to, and nobody answered until Ryan suddenly kicked her under the table and she looked at him indignantly.

"It was fine," she lied, and remembered her manners, "how was yours?"

Lucy Anders was just as beautiful as she was charismatic, and her response was a mixture of that. Kory found herself horribly zoning out, burying herself back into her own thoughts. It was only when she realised that somebody was asking her a question (and that she was rudely forgetting to give an answer) that she finally found herself back in reality.

She took a small bite of her fish piece and her throat closed up. Kory had almost choked on the piece, and her whole face resembled the colour of the tomato sauce that covered the food. Her parents were looking at her strangely; her father in particular was frowning deeply, and she only closed her eyes momentarily, praying that they weren't going to draw it out.

Her luck had run out.

"Kory?" her dad asked. "Are you feeling alright?"

Cheeks burning from the shame, Kory managed to blink forcefully, almost as if it would shake her out of this phase. "I am fine, Dad." The accent was back again, dragging itself in along with the humiliation and dishonor.

"You don't seem to be looking good," Ryan added, and Kory turned to him and glared fiercely. She loved him, but there were some times when he really frustrated her. And right now, was definitely one of those times.

Just then, as if it was X'hal answering her own prayers from heaven, the doorbell rang, short and sharp. Kory didn't even need to apologise. Her whole body swiftly jumped out of the chair before the words could even form in her head. She moved through the foyer, which was decorated with lilac flowers in ivory vases, and to the front door.

It was probably one of her neighbors, but whoever this person was, they were her saving grace.

Her right hand grasped the handle, whilst the other one skilfully undid the chain and unlocked the bolts. She was greeted with the face of Dick Grayson. He hadn't changed his outfit much, apart from the addition of a black leather jacket (which made her chest tightened uncomfortably) and sunglasses (which weren't a welcome accompaniment because Dick Grayson had really gorgeous eyes).

Taking off his glasses and resting them on his head, Dick looked slightly surprised and that was probably because she had attended to the door so quickly. "Uh, hey," he greeted.

Kory couldn't help it. A smile found itself on her face, despite the current circumstances. "Hello."

"Um," he said, and it looked like he had forgotten what he was there for. Dick looked up at her again, and it was obvious from the expression on his face that he had remembered. He dug into his back pocket and fished a slightly creased piece of paper. It was decorated with a silver outline, and from the feel of the paper, it was obviously very expensive.

"I have your official invitation for the party tomorrow," he mentioned, and then explained, "you'll need to bring it with you since the bodyguards are really strict about this sort of thing."

She took it from his outstretched hand, widening the door and leaning on the frame. "Thank you for the invite. Do you want to come in?" the redhead asked. "We've just started dinner."

He considered it from a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. I probably shouldn't keep you away," he laughed.

"Are you sure?" she pleaded desperately. Going back to the dinner party of doom wasn't exactly her greatest wish.

"It's fine," he brushed it away. "Anyway, I also came here to check up if you were okay. Y'know, considering everything that's happened today."

It was an odd question. Was she okay? Not really.

"I am…" she hesitated, and then decided to give the truth. "I am not sure. I think I am doing okay."

Dick gave her one of those lopsided grins that was reassuring and entertaining at the same time. "It's gonna get better, y'know. I promise."

Kory wanted to point out that he'd promised her twice today, but she reckoned that it wasn't the most appropriate time. Her hand found his shoulder, a small gesture to thank him for his words.

"I hope so," she wished.

"Anyway," Dick finished off the conversation. "I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow?" When she nodded, he took that as a cue to continue speaking. "It's formal wear, but as long as you don't come in dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, I don't think it'll matter much."

She thanked him, and he was in his car driving away by the time Ryan had reached the door. Her younger brother looked tired, and the youngest daughter guessed it was probably the stress of school. The graffiti affected both of them – it linked her in a silvery web with everybody else in the school, but it was her family that suffered the most.

Sometimes she wished people didn't have to be so judgmental.

"Mom and Dad are wondering why you took so long," her brother informed her. "They're also kinda pissed that you ran off like that."

Kory shut the door behind her, resisting the urge to sigh softly. It seemed that she encountered an ever flowing stream of problems that never ceased. She was starting to get tired of it, tired of it all.


	13. thirteen

_Author's Note: Shoutout to '_ s. akhter _' because they have the most amazing reviews that make me smile and are really supportive! Love you lots! :)_ _Also, thank you to my other reviewers who keep me focused and dedicated to this story! psst, I'm so proud because I'm actually doing really well with updating, like I'm actually being consistent for once! :o_

 _Anyway, this note is short leaving you with two messages:_

 _1\. Kory might not be as innocent as we think she is._

 _2\. Not everybody is keen with Kory's newfound friendship with Dick_

 _(also there is lots of fighting/arguing/flirting/complaining) (there is also a new story cover that I made, so woo!)_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Thirteen – His First Instinct Was To Hold Her Close**_

* * *

"Are you sure you don't wanna ditch the party and come here instead?" Wally asked, balancing a stack of red cups in his left hand. In the other, he held seven multicolored bowls, presumably for holding the snacks. "It's gonna be epic!" he exclaimed, almost dropping the cups in the process.

Dick considered it for a moment, then shook his head. He still had two hours until he was required to be home, dress like a doll, and posses the most charming façade known to humankind. Instead, to pass the time, he was helping to set up the house for Wally's own party. They had already locked all of the bedrooms, for fear of drunken idiots trying to sleep together on the redhead's parents' bed, and save for a couple of seats and tables, most of the furniture had been moved away to the side.

The cups finally fell to the wooden floor, and Rachel looked up from her spot on the snacks table and scowled. She began picking them up, whilst Wally looked at Dick eagerly, probably waiting for an official answer.

"I can't," Dick finally replied. "Bruce will probably take away my driving privileges for a month."

The only girl in the room looked up, arching an eyebrow. "Really? That sounds a little extreme."

"He's done it before," the boy shrugged, laying the snacks on the table, standing beside her. He was indifferent to Bruce's punishments now. "These things are really important for Wayne Enterprises since they usually lead up to securing a business deal."

Rachel still looked surprise and he sent her a reassuring smile. She responded with a funny look - one that he couldn't decipher. He made a mental note about asking her about her strange behaviour; she'd been acting really weird lately and it was getting worrying.

Especially when Dick was ninety-percent sure he had developed a small crush on Kory, and he didn't know exactly what to do with this new-found information. He was going to have to ask Rachel what to do - she was the only girl who he was close enough to and comfortable enough with, that knew Kory.

"Still," Wally pointed out, "it sounds like it's gonna suck."

The words tumbled out before he could stop them. "It won't be that bad. Kory will be there."

He winced knowing that had been one of the worst sentences he could ever utter to his friends.

Wally immediately crossed his arms over his chest, almost mockingly. "Right, y'know everything will be perfect because of Kory!" he exclaimed sarcastically.

Rachel's lip curled downwards and she refused to meet his gaze. Before Dick could open his mouth and explain — try to rectify the situation in any way possible — Roy Harper suddenly strolled through the door.

His auburn hair was slightly tousled upwards, and his blue eyes shone interestedly. He was wearing a dark t-shirt (and Dick only noticed that because of the fact that Roy had got his name monogrammed on it).

Wally greeted, "hey," a little sourly but Roy only put his hand up.

He sat on the armrest of the sofa, shaking his head. "Greet me later," Roy instructed, swinging his legs over until they rested on the cushions. He rested his elbows on his knees, propping his head up with one hand. "Who's Kory?" he asked, obviously absorbed by the topic so much that he completely neglected to even notice Rachel, who was scowling at him from the corner.

Dick internally groaned, knowing that he wasn't going to get out of this now. "A friend of mine," he replied, and it was the truth. He had just hadn't added it was a gorgeous teenage girl.

They'd been best friends for as long as Dick had known Wally. He was the most similar to Dick in terms of background, both of them had the misfortune to be adopted by billionaire playboys (or the luck, depending on how you liked your lifestyle to be), but Roy sided with the latter.

He only pressed for more details, smirking slightly. "Age?" he quizzed, and the pair soon started a quick firing range of questions and answers, with the occasional piece of information provided by Wally.

The adopted son of Bruce Wayne didn't need to think about it. Kory's birthday was on the seventeenth of July – she was born in the summer.

"Surname? When did you guys meet? Single?"

It was evident that Roy was asking most of these questions for his own benefit, but Dick still continued to answer them. It was only when the inquiry became more about Kory's appearance (and whether or not she would date a redhead boy who's interested in archery) did Dick begin to regulate his breathing and try to prevent Roy from inching under his skin any further.

"Does she like short skirts?" The heir of Queen Industries asked, and Dick bit his own tongue in frustration.

He crossed his arms, and glared at the boy. "I'm not answering that, Roy. Don't be an asshole."

Except Wally, who still hadn't really gotten over the whole news about Kory's presence at Bruce's party, decided to answer it instead. "She wears them every day."

Whilst Roy fist pumped the air obnoxiously, Dick felt his cheeks heat up. He had noticed that of course – he _was_ a detective after all – and he'd caught himself staring at her ass more times than any decent guy would.

Rachel retorted, "it's nice to see that you guys are so interested in her personality," but was unanimously ignored, although Dick silently agreed with her.

"Cup size?" Roy quizzed, and there was the distinct sound of Rachel chucking an empty bowl at his head and missing by only an inch. The bowl clattered to the ground, but the redhead only turned around and winked at her.

Dick reddened, a mixture of anger and embarrassment (and little hints of guilt for reducing Kory to her physical traits only). Roy was such a pervert at times, speaking about girls like their appearance was the only benefit of existence. He knew his best friend didn't really think that – otherwise the boy wouldn't have lasted through a six-month relationship at the age of fifteen – but there were times when the whole conversation really irked him.

"Don't be a fuckhead," Dick warned, "otherwise I'll throw that bowl at you and this time it won't miss."

Roy grinned good naturedly, and then shrugged. "How hot is she?" he finally asked, and Dick didn't know how to answer that.

The truth was, Kory was absolutely gorgeous with red curls, pretty eyes and a really nice figure. She was also really sweet, funny and a generally nice person. Except telling that to any of his friends was like signing his own death certificate, inviting hours of relentless teasing, sexual innuendos and imitations ("Oh Kory, I love you so much! Have my babies!").

Wally frowned, "Uh…eight? Eight and a half? She's attractive, but she also has this tendency to steal people away." He suddenly shot a glare Dick's way, and the latter responded confusedly, still reeling from the emotions of annoyance.

"Why don't you like her?" Dick asked, crossing his arms. This had been occurring all afternoon: little snide remarks about his lack of presence during Friday lunch; jokes that were borderline snarky; clues of passive aggressiveness. Wally was starting to resemble a middle-school girl – possessive and petty.

He didn't understand why they were acting like this. Kory was being openly ridiculed, called every name under the sun. Some guys were on the verge of sexual harassment, trying to grab and touch her, pretending that she had consented just because of her reputation. He knew that she had already made several reports to the principal's office as well as the guidance councilor, but apart from the occasional comment that they were "sorting things out," nothing had actually been done.

Wally tilted his head to the side, sounding incredulous. "There isn't anything wrong with her. It's you that's the problem. You've completely ditched us in favor of her."

Rolling his eyes, almost laughing, Dick said, "I haven't ditched anybody. In case you haven't noticed, people are being complete douchebags to her, even though she hasn't done anything wrong."

"I know that," the fastest runner in Brookford High pointed out, "but in the past week, apart from lunch, you don't bother talking to us if Kory's with you. You walk with her to every single one of her classes and you didn't even say a single word to us on Friday. Instead you get into a fucking fist fight with Sawyer Fannon."

Dick could feel his temper seeping quietly out of his fingertips. It would build up, and then erupt into a river of spewing hot lava that would burn anybody who got into his way. Frankly, he was beginning to get angry at how selfish everyone was being. Kory had cried on Friday because some asshat decided that calling her names was more entertaining than treating her like a normal human being, and their biggest concern was that he wasn't spending enough time with them!

Roy stood up, looking uneasy. "Uh, guys? Maybe we should calm down a bit…"

He was subsequently ignored.

"So you'd rather let her get bullied?" Dick questioned, hands shaking by his sides.

Wally stayed fixated on his spot, knees slightly bent. "It's not about Kory," he said, "it's about the fact that you've decided to ditch us all for some girl that you find hot!" His cheeks were beginning to resemble the gingery-colour of his hair, and his green eyes were narrowed angrily.

Dick almost threw his hands up in exasperation. The whole argument _was_ about Kory, but Wally refused to admit it. He was starting to get sick of everybody accusing him of ditching his friends. He was standing right there, wasn't he? He had bothered to come over to help them set up for a party hadn't he? So why the _fuck_ were they acting like seven-year-olds?!

He gritted his teeth, and his fists tightened considerably. Usually on days like this, he managed to keep a cool front, but the stress of Bruce's stupid party and Wally's words, were grating on his nerves considerably. Clenching his jaw, Dick forced himself to exhale and try to calm down. His eyes briefly closed, but they fluttered open when the anger doubled. Finally giving up, he dropped the bowl to the floor, much to the surprise of the speedster, and began to make his way to the door.

"I don't need to listen to you, fuck that, I don't even need to be here. Call me when you realise how much much of an asshole you're being!" he shouted, leaving the room. Moments later, the front door slammed shut behind him, and he rustled in his jeans' pocket for his keys. Power-walking through the yard, he was only a couple of feet away from his car when he noticed Vic getting out of his own car, holding two shopping bags of food.

Vic hadn't noticed the sort of mood Dick was currently in. "Hey, uh where should I put these?" he asked.

"The front door's open," Dick said, too harshly for comfort, and then tried to explain, "everyone's in the living room."

Vic nodded, "Okay. You okay, man?"

Dick didn't dignify his question with an answer. As the football player finally shrugged and walked on, Dick waited for the familiar click of the door to become audible. He hadn't even known they'd invited Vic, but then, he guessed, if he was so busy "ditching" them all (like Wally ever-so-helpfully pointed out) than they would have had plenty of time to become good friends with the guy.

He heard the front door click open again and didn't need to bother turning around. Rachel starting talking as soon as she had stepped outside.

"Dick, you need to calm down!" she ordered, and in most cases that would've worked. But he was teeming with anger, teetering on the edge between calm and chaos.

Fingers were already clutching the car keys, pressing the unlock button about a thousand times. His hand reached for the car door but before he could open it, Rachel's warm hand found his.

"Dick," she said a little softer, "calm down. Can we talk about this please?"

Once again, he forced himself to exhale and his fingers dropped awkwardly to his side. "Fine. But if you bring up any of this 'leaving' bullshit, I'll be the one leaving."

Rachel smiled. It was a small smile, but a welcome gesture nonetheless. "I think…" she said softly, and it was obvious she was choosing her words carefully, "I think that Wally is still a little upset about the fact that you can't come to the party. And the fact that…the fact that you emphasize how much you dislike Bruce's cocktail parties, and then invite Kory, hurts us all."

Dick's hand crept back up the door, and his tone was harsh. "Then who am I supposed to invite?!"

She looked at him and the answer was almost a whisper. "Me?"

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, knowing that was probably the last answer he would ever expect, and she quickly backpedaled. "…or any of us."

There was a beat of silence.

"Rachel, I gotta go now," he finally said, jerking the car door open. Not bothering to wait for her reply, he locked himself inside the car and instantly clutched the steering wheel, as if it would diffuse some of his anger. The ignition switched on; his fingers resumed their death grip on the wheel before one hand tapped impatiently against the dashboard.

When Dick drove out of the driveway, his increased his speed recklessly and ignored the swirling thoughts in his mind. It was more relaxing, more thrilling cruising through the half-empty streets of Brookford. He ignored the centre of the city, and instead darted through the outskirts, admiring the wind when it ran through his hair and hit his flushed cheeks.

He loved his convertible, but he would have preferred the freedom of having his bike. It made driving more smooth, more slick. It wasn't a clunky car; it was an extension of his body. He felt alive, and way more confident with his bike. Plus, the windswept look resonated deeply with the ladies. He wondered if Kory would find it sexy, and then cut off the thought immediately, eyes widening.

He almost swerved into some random cyclist, the latter of which was shouting a string of unpleasant curse words. The man flipped him off, but the dark-haired boy only scowled in response. As soon as the guy had disappeared turned the corner and disappeared from his line of sight, Dick adjusted the mirror, and gulped.

Where the _hell_ had those feelings for Kory come from?

* * *

Her parents had been surprised at the invitation, but Kory had detected a sense of pride emanating out of their cool expressions. Ryan had teased her endlessly, but one small reminder of Kole had caused him to give up and move onto something else. His face had flushed red, matching his unruly curls and he'd sorrowfully revealed that the blonde already had a crush on Joey Wilson, a sophomore.

She tugged at the final curl, as it slipped into place on her shoulder. It brushed passed the silky straps on her shoulder, ones that had a plunging neckline and had a pretty necklace to match. It had been one of last years' prom dresses that hadn't been chosen. The material was soft against her skin as she applied the last coat of rosy lip gloss. Gripping her purse, Kory opened her door and froze.

Leaning against the frame, the picture of nonchalance, was her sister's boyfriend, Philip. His caramel-coloured hair fell in gentle layers, and having had first hand experience of what it felt like, Kory's hands twitched awkwardly. He was wearing his V-neck t-shirt, the red one, which he'd worn to most of the summer parties.

It was partnered with denim jeans and converses, which was slightly ironic since he'd previously claimed that he would never wear shoes like that. A smile tugged at the faint memory, before reality crashed back in.

"Hey little K," he greeted, and he was probably the only member of the universe who could get away with calling her by that nickname. Last summer it had been sexy and exciting, having an older guy giving her a special name, but now it made her feel childish. He was only three years older than her, but all it did was remind her of how most people liked to treat her – like she was an infant incapable of doing anything but look pretty.

The name stuck in her throat, and she forced herself to swallow. "Hello Philip," she replied formally, almost coldly.

"You don't have to use 'Philip,'" he said, pulling a face. "I preferred your last nickname. What was it again?" he teased.

With any other boy, Kory would hit them playfully and probably scowl. But she'd always been uncomfortable around him, never able to express her full emotions.

When it was obvious she wasn't going to reply, he pulled another face before reaching out to touch her.

He picked up a curl of her hair and played with it. It naturally twisted around his finger before he straightened it out again, pulling at it slightly. "Your hair looks nice today," he complimented, and she couldn't work out his intentions. Philip sounded sincere, but she couldn't trust him, not after the way he had treated her.

She'd pinned her hair in the popular 'half-up-half-down' style with the little ponytail being secured with a small gold bow. His hands traced the outline of the bow, each and every shiny crystal. It stroked the slightly frayed edge, and she continued to stand frozen, unsure how to react.

His hand absentmindedly brushed her cheek, and she finally flushed red. He was a good head taller than him, and if she stood on her tiptoes she could kiss him (like she had before, she guiltily remembered). Swatting his hand away when it began to creep too low for comfort, she folded his arms across her chest protectively instead.

Philip copied her position almost teasingly. "You look gorgeous little K. So who's the lucky guy?" he asked, an inch of possessiveness laced in his voice.

"Nobody," she murmured, slightly embarrassed. "I'm going to a party."

Although, a small part of her admitted that maybe the reason that Kory had put in so much effort into her appearance was to impress Dick, although she quickly dismissed it away before it could grow any further. She liked him, obviously, but she wasn't sure if it was romantic or platonic yet.

His hands were snaking around her hips, but she batted them away before they could touch the fabric of her dress. He was making her uncomfortable again, creating little pinpricks against her skin that refused to go away. Inhaling quietly, the redhead stepped forwards bravely and kept a determined expression.

"I need to go," she announced and then added, almost as a warning, "my parents are downstairs waiting for me."

Raising an eyebrow, Philip looked amused. For a split second it looked like he wasn't going to move, and then things would become extremely unpleasant. Then he stepped to the side, and gestured to for her to leave, but not before his hand brushed her ass. Her chest tightened immediately, and she felt sick.

One hand clutched her gold purse, and the other fell delicately to the youngest daughter's side, holding a slightly battered copy of Animal Farm and her English notebook folded neatly inside.

Ryan's bag was sitting on the side of the stairs, and she knew that he was having a sleepover with one of the other boys in his class. She was glad, knowing that he was making friends instead of letting his reputation destroy any sort of chance of having a platonic relationship.

Her brother came out of his room, armed with about twelve different video games. "We're having a marathon," he explained, as if that would make any sense to her. Kory nodded briefly, her mouth forming in an 'o' shape.

"Okay," she said softly. "Are you ready?"

Nodding, Ryan buttoned up his jersey. "Yup. Are Mom and Dad already in the car?"

The porch lights were on, meaning that they had already gone inside. She knew that her father was bringing a briefcase with business documents in, and her mother had all of the details on her phone. Although she was unaware of the actual deal, she'd been informed regularly of its importance.

And that was why she couldn't mess things up, even though there wasn't exactly anything she could ruin. Her fingers clasped at her own coat, tightening the sides together and closing the top button of the black jacket. Ryan disappeared through the door with his bag, and came back two minutes later empty-handed.

She almost cursed X'hal's name, then and there, when she realised that she'd left the invitation on her bedside table. Heels were easy to walk in, but the swishing motion of the dress meant that changing height (or in this case, going up the stairs again) was difficult. Especially when her wrists ached from volleyball, and to ensure she didn't trip over the fabric she would have to grip tightly against the bannister.

Kory managed it of course, but then Philip was still standing by her sister's room waiting for her to finish showering. They were going to another party, or perhaps a date; she didn't know and it wasn't the most important piece of information in her life.

"Back again?" Phil teased, and she bristled slightly. He wasn't even touching her, and yet she had managed to flinch.

"I forgot my invitation," she murmured softly, refusing to meet his gaze. Phil didn't comment any further, and for that, she thanked the highest peaks of X'hal's heaven.

Slipping back into her room, she picked up the invitation off the table, using two fingers to hold it. Breathing softly, she almost ran past the older boy, slowing down once she was halfway down the stairs.

Phil was standing on the landing, leaning against one of the bannister posts, with his elbow pointing out. The sounds of the shower were audible, but they still didn't block out the sound of Phil's goodbye.

"Bye Kory!" he waved, still grinning wildly.

The aforementioned girl didn't bother to reply, but instead shut the front door behind her.

It was still light outside, with dusk kissing the tops of the trees. Kim's Mercedes sat neatly in the driveway, glinting against the streams of light. Beside it, her parents' personal chauffeur was adjusting the wing mirror of the car, twiddling it from side-to-side until he was happy.

Kory opened the backseat door and sat down, taking care not to crease her dress. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax.

It was going to be okay.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Dick Grayson readjusted his bowtie and buttoned up his sleeve. The collar of his shirt was becoming suffocating again, and he loosened in with his fingers, yanking on it when it refused to budge. His trousers were itching against his legs, and the jacket Bruce had provided was made out of the same scratchy material.

Caterers fretted about around him, holding dishes of food and trays of drinks. Everything radiated the word 'expensive' from the appetizers (caviar on rye bread with roasted peppers) to the golden chandelier hanging in the ballroom. Bruce was sorting out the final details and Alfred was making sure all of the staff knew where to go.

There were only ten minutes until the party was going to start, and he was already regretting being there. Although it was not like he had any choice in the matter, he would have preferred to go to Wally's house party instead, even if they weren't on the best terms right now. There was something about the whole essence of these parties that he loathed, how fake and exaggerated everything was.

"Dick?" Bruce called, checking his golden watch. It was a Wayne Family heirloom that had been given to him by his own father, weeks before Thomas Wayne had been murdered. It was Bruce's favourite. "Are you ready?"

Shoving his hands into his pockets, but opting to take them out five seconds later, Dick nodded. "Yeah. Any specific topics I need to avoid?"

It was a question asked every time. Usually he had to avoid specific people like Vicky Vale: red hair, small eyes, big mouth, and an even bigger reporter, but sometimes there were certain subjects that he wasn't allowed to mention.

The voice of his guardian was slightly gruff, and Dick chalked that down to stress. "Anything about Tim," Bruce finally said, adjusting the watch on his wrist. "I haven't finalized everything yet, meaning that if this leaks to the press then they'll be less inclined to finish off the paperwork."

Dick nodded then reaffirmed the question. "Anything else?"

Bruce studied him for a minute, his fixed expression unwavering. Dick tried not to be the human embodiment of 'moody teenager' but he was really tired and the night hadn't even begun yet. He'd already set up his temporary bedroom in the guest wing, far away from Selina and Bruce's escapades, and all of his work was ready for Kory. He'd made sure his actual bedroom was cleaner than usual, because not many girls had actually seen it (four actually: Rachel, Donna, Bette and Babs).

"Look more interested," Bruce finally ordered, glaring at him accusingly.

Dick rolled his eyes, just in time to hear the front door be opened by Alfred. A blast of warm air found itself to the main hallway, and Dick reluctantly followed his legal guardian to the main foyer.

It was the Worthington's: Priscilla and Alexander, both dressed in ridiculously extravagant clothes, as if the whole event was a secret competition of richness. Dick didn't put it past them to actually believe that, but he forced a smile on his face and cringed internally when Priscilla kissed one of his cheeks. He could feel her lipstick imprinted on his skin.

"Oh how sweet!" she cooed, when she had finally finished talking to Bruce. "It's little Dickie! How old are you now? Fourteen."

There were two things wrong with that sentence – his age and that awful nickname. Dick gritted his teeth, and his face almost cracked. "Seventeen actually," he corrected, mustering up as much politeness as he physically possessed.

Her eyes widened, and the fourty-year-old woman (with three years of botox hiding under her perfect face) laughed, hitting Bruce playfully. "Oh they grow up so fast!" she snorted, shoulder's shaking. Her breasts wobbled disgustingly, and Dick wondered how many times she'd been under the knife. His face wrinkled in nausea, and he decided to stop thinking about that certain topic.

"I remember when he was just nine years old…" Priscilla started and he tuned out immediately. He watched Bruce's reaction instead, trying to spot the moments when the charming façade crumbled and the true Bruce Wayne was uncovered. There was a round of laughs and Dick joined in, even though he didn't even know what they were talking about.

Eventually Alfred led the couple and two others, (because the conversation dragged on for a few eons giving other people the perfect opportunity to arrive and converse about unimportant things) to the ballroom, and before the teenager could even breathe, another group of people emerged from the brightly lit front gardens. This group were more inquisitive, and their favourite questions contained the word 'school.'

Dick almost laughed, imagining what their faces would really read as, if they knew what had _really_ been going on his school. Graffiti, rumors, slut-shaming, bullying and poorly-made school dinners. The sort of events that occurred in cringe-inducing soap operas about poor schools on the lower east side, not in a highly acclaimed High School.

Selina Kyle was the next to appear, and her name was as sexy as her appearance. When Dick had been younger, he'd harbored a tiny crush on her, but now she was more like a parent figure to him, albeit one who drifted in-and-out of the doors of Wayne Manor. She kissed Bruce on the cheek, slipped something into his pocket (the black-haired boy was eighty percent sure it was a condom) and they flirted for ten minutes.

"Dick," she finally greeted, "how are you?"

The aforementioned boy scratched the back of his neck. "I'm fine. How are you?"

Her response was curt, and afterwards, Bruce turned to his young ward. "You've done your required time at the door," he informed him, and Dick noted how eerily similar the sentence was to a prison guard notifying his prisoner. Except that situation was a world away from what was currently ensuing here.

Shaking his head, Dick knew that he wasn't going to volunteer to move to the ballroom and be forced to converse with the rich. He wanted to find Kory and stick with her for the whole night, and he couldn't figure out how much of that was due to his (miniscule) crush. Pressing his thumb against the inside of his pocket, he only tilted his head slightly.

"It's fine," he said, and as soon as Selina raised her eyebrows, he regretted the decision immediately. "I'll stay here."

Selina was smirking, red lips glowing against the lighting. She pulled him to the side, away from earshot. "Who are you waiting for?" she asked, and it was clear she was teasing him.

His reply was too quick. "Nobody," he lied, murmuring slightly. "I'm just trying to be a good host."

" _Really?"_ Selina definitely didn't believe him. "There's not a pretty girl you're waiting for?"

Dick was mortified, rooted to the spot. He struggled for an excuse – any reason to get him out of this situation. It got worse, because as soon as he managed a hasty, "I don't know what you're talking about," a group of people arrived at the door. Amongst them, were Kory and her parents, all looking absolutely stunning.

It was Kory naturally, that made his breath get stuck in his throat. His fingers pulled tightly against his collar, and he could feel his neck heating up. She looked gorgeous, with a low-cut dress that showed a perfect amount of cleavage (and forced him to distract himself with depressing thoughts like dying kittens). Although the top part of her curls were pinned back, the rest trailed down her back like a rosy waterfall.

The red-haired beauty noticed him immediately, and the corners of her mouth curved upwards. "Hello," she whispered, stepping closer towards him.

His first instinct was to hold her close, and kiss this irresistible creature as passionately as he could. Fingers aching to touch her, he shoved his hands behind his back instead. "Um…" he started to say, but then his attention was diverted by the way her breasts looked under the velvety fabric. "…uh…hi," Dick eloquently continued, the rest of the words falling out of his mouth, "you look really beautiful."

When Kory smiled, her whole face smiled alongside her, and the edges of her eyes creased slightly. Her cheeks took on a rosy shade, and her eyes fluttered slightly. "Thank you," she breathed, "you look really handsome too."

The itchy feeling of the edges of the jacket rubbing against his hands was back again, but he ignored it, and slipped his hand into hers. She tilted her head confusedly at him, but he began talking before she could say anything. "Do you wanna look around?" he asked, before motioning to the adults. "They're gonna be talking for a while."

Kory looked over her shoulder, but then nodded. "Okay," she said, he led her through the hallway. He stole a quick glance at Selina, who winked at him playfully, and the message was obvious. Mr Anders shot him a stern look, one that was equal parts threatening and concerned. Kory's dad was pure muscle, standing two heads taller than Bruce. He was scarier than Dick had ever imagined.

When they reached the ballroom, Dick could sense people looking at them. Instead, he focused on the golden and cream decorations of the walls; the majestic grandeur of the hanging chandeliers; the magnificence of the soft pianist playing jazz in the centre of the room. There were waiters moving swiftly around the arena, and a bar to the left. On either side of the room, two tables had been erected, and there were trays of canopies on them.

His stomach grumbled quietly, and he dropped her hand. "We've got some really delicious food," he said sarcastically, "roasted salmon and avocado with tomato sauce, red onion and black pepper shrimp, and pomegranate slices on ham."

Kory managed a half-smile as she tried to find the positives of the situation. "Oh," she said, "that sounds…um…" she searched for the appropriate word, and he had to smile at her cuteness. He let her look for another twenty seconds.

"…disgusting?" Dick finished off for her, and then continued when she looked slightly worried, "you can say it, Kor. I've stocked up on loads of food in the kitchen."

She looked down, finally agreeing. "It sounds disgusting," she said.

Before he could escape the room, Mrs Weathers with her blonde hair and unnaturally straight features came up to the pair. She clutched a mini black purse in her claws that were painted in red nail polish. A slight sneer and a patronising giggle was all it took for Dick to realise that the incoming conversation wasn't going to end well.

"Dick!" she called out, and he instantly gripped Kory's arm. The straps of her dress were moderately thin, and the length of it barely grazed her knees, meaning he was exposed to acres of golden skin. His eyes widened momentarily as he soaked in the image, before reality came crashing into him again, like the waves on a stormy day.

"Kory, we need to get out of here, _now_!" he hissed, grabbing at her hand.

It made his stomach gurgle, and his chest tighten, when she automatically followed his instructions and spun on her heel. Her dress rode up slightly exposing even longer legs, and he felt guiltier than ever, gazing lustfully at her (and being a pervert) at every available opportunity. They managed two steps in the right direction before Mrs Weathers tore them apart with her vulture talons.

"Dick," she said, sugary sweet, "how are you? How is school?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat, resuming his fake smile. "It's great thanks. How are you Mrs Weathers?"

She completely ignored his question, and turned to Kory instead. "Who are you dear? Has Dick finally got a girlfriend again? It's been a while, hasn't it?" The elderly lady had hints of a mocking tone in his voice, and Dick debated whether or not to climb the roof of Wayne Manor and then jump off it.

She just had to bring up his lack of a girlfriend. Probably because when he'd been with Babs, he'd been about to turn sixteen; she'd only go to these parties once in a blue moon, and even then, they usually just stayed around her dad. And his brief freshman month of dating Bette Kane had happened ages ago, so in a way, Mrs Weathers was right.

However, she didn't _have_ to point that out to anybody, let alone _Kory_.

As much as he wanted to say otherwise – probably because he was really starting to entertain the idea of him and Kory as a couple – Dick shook his head. "She's my best friend," he said, and there was plenty of truth in that statement. Although she hadn't known him properly for that long, Kory knew him better than everybody else currently did. The anger from the argument earlier still hadn't dissolved properly, and he was left with a weird aching feeling.

"Oh," Mrs Weathers smiled, showing unnaturally white teeth. "What's your name?"

Kory gave her a sweet smile, one that Mrs Weathers _really_ didn't deserve, and brought a hand out to shake the older woman's. "I'm Kory Anders. It's lovely to meet you."

Dick was surprised at how diplomatic Kory was, and then he remembered that she'd been to these before, when she'd been much younger. She hadn't told him many stories, but it was relieving to know that she was used to these kinds of people, too. It meant that he didn't have to worry about her being offended by them, or accidentally insulting one of them (Babs had once done that, and the results hadn't been pretty).

The conversation continued, and Dick found himself yet again admiring Kory's appearance. He winced visibly this time, and wondered how on earth he was going to survive the next couple of hours. Especially when they would be sitting in his room alone, and every time he stared then, it would be _way_ more obvious.

Bits of the conversation drifted in and out of his hearing, and when it had finally finished, he turned to Kory. "You're an angel, you know that right? I don't think I've ever met anybody this patient before."

She was looking heavenly, laughing softly again. "It was not _that_ bad," she replied, and he noted that the accent had come back. And he didn't mind it at all, except for the fact that the sexiness of the way she said certain things (combined with her jaw-dropping dress tonight) was doing bad things to his brain, and making blood rush to areas that it really shouldn't.

He avidly tried to keep his mind from wandering and thinking really dirty thoughts about Kory, like how good she would look right now, lying on her back. "Um…" he started, focus deteriorating from the moment his mouth opened. He thought back to the conversation, and kept his eyes focused on the top of her head instead of letting them soak in her appearance.

"Vegetable gardens don't sound that interesting," he finally managed, and that sent Kory into a small fit of giggles. Which sent him into a downward spiral, and he had to physically count the number of panels on the wall instead of looking at her.

"Okay," she admitted, "so maybe it was not the most interesting of conversations," she giggled again.

People were noticing them again, so he linked his arm around hers and tugged slightly to the right. "Should we go to the kitchen now?" he asked, before ashamedly admitting, "I haven't really eaten much today."

Kory nodded, tucking some hair behind her ear. He found the action mesmerizing, and had to clear his throat twice before he could actually walk properly.

"Lead the way," Kory smiled, and he was perfectly happy to do so.


	14. fourteen

_Author's Note: shoutout to my review squad who always make me strive to be a better writer, and always cheer up my day! also, next week's update might not be on time (it'll probably be a few days late because of school + tests) also reminder that_ _ **i have a poll on, so check it out!**_

 _also this chapter is short, but the other was extra long so it kind of makes up for it?_

 _and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DICK GRAYSON! (March 20th is his in-universe birthday!)_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Fourteen – The Best Cupcakes Known to Mankind**_

* * *

Dick checked the clock on the kitchen wall, and reckoned that they had about fifteen more minutes until it was appropriate for them to leave. Technically they had already left the ballroom, but he figured that they should probably suffer with at least one more person's boring conversation before they could start their study session.

Stepping into the kitchen, he scanned the room until he found exactly what he was looking for. It was no secret that Alfred had always made a batch of cupcakes with frosting before big cocktail parties, and although he never explicitly said it, Bruce knew of it too. They were for when the food was particularly disgusting (which unfortunately, was ninety percent of the time) and Dick usually ended up eating five of them.

He found the hidden cookie jar – shaped like a bat – and quickly unscrewed the lid. Kory stood beside him; the fabric of her dress kept brushing past his hand, which was really distracting. It was silky smooth, like a ribbon constantly pressing against his skin. Clearing his throat and shaking away _those_ kind of thoughts, he grabbed a cupcake with vanilla frosting and passed it to her.

"They're Alfred's cupcakes," Dick explained when she'd had that cute confused expression on her face. "They're like the best cupcakes known to mankind!"

"Okay," she murmured, laughing softly, and he grabbed one for himself, savoring each bite. The frosting was extra sugary, laced with hints of vanilla, with a small chocolate curl resting on the top. Leaning on the counter, he copied Kory's position and watched as her eyes widened in delight.

She bit into the top of the cake, and remnants of icing smeared on her cheek. "This is delicious!" she exclaimed, the motion making her hair brush against his shoulder.

Dick silently agreed, grinning to himself. He turned to look at her, and found her exhaling quietly, biting her lip slightly. It was mesmerizing, the way she looked: cheeks tinged with a dabble of pink, eyes lidded slightly and eyelashes clumped together, curling at the edges. His mind was beginning to wander again, and he physically gripped the side of the countertop, steadying himself.

Her eyes opened and she looked at him, slightly amused. "What?" he asked, starting to feel self-conscious.

"You have frosting on your nose," Kory giggled, showing a full smile. His hand instinctively moved to wipe it off, until her own halted the movement, and the fingers of her left hand cleared it off. He could feel his cheeks burning, embarrassment seeping in.

She put her index finger in her mouth and suddenly sucked the icing off, and he briefly wondered if he was dreaming up this whole party. Dick's eyes bulged, and her lips parted in surprise. He didn't know what was wrong with himself – they'd been friends for a few weeks, and he'd _never_ properly thought about her in that way before. Sure he'd entertained himself with the idea, once or twice, but it was like suddenly feelings had rammed into his side, making everything slightly dizzy.

He debated asking her how the hell she managed to look so sexy all the time, except she was looking at him again, with an air of innocence this time. Any traces of suggestiveness had disappeared from her face. "Should we go back to the party?" the redhead asked, and the corners of her lips quirked upwards.

Nodding, Dick forced any inappropriate thoughts out of his mind. "Sure," he said, "let's go."

They reached the ballroom, and he searched the room for Bruce. Any ideas of staying in this room any longer had dissipated; the thick stench of perfume was making his head hurt. Dick turned to Kory, trying to sound as casual as he could.

"Hey, do you wanna just start the study session now?" he asked, and patiently waited for her response. He avoided direct eye contact, and instead focused on the way her hair curled – the top of each strand was slightly wavy, before spiraling half-way into a rosy curl.

"Okay!" she nodded, surprisingly perky, and a sense of relief surges through his veins. "I am just going to tell my parents," she said, and began to disappear between the darkness of the crowd. He strained to see her, watching as her figure gracefully moved between people, eventually giving up and putting his hands in his pockets.

Resisting the urge to sigh, to grab her arm and drag her back, he bristled slightly. He was Dick Grayson! The acrobat who could use a trapeze without a net! A crowd of stuffy, middle-aged snooty rich people wasn't going to harm him, although their topics of conversation might. Forcing himself to exhale, Dick walked head-first into the thinning crowd and looked for the familiar façade held by his mentor.

He was standing next to an elderly couple, and it was evident that the trio were in deep conversation. Dick didn't even bother waiting for a pause in the conversation – he stepped in between them and gave his most delighted (and fake) smile.

"Bruce?" he questioned, and it was slightly awkward trying to talk to his guardian whilst the older woman cooed. Bruce Wayne, dressed to the nines, flashed a charming smile and it was a signal for Dick to continue talking. The boy himself hated how he had to look to Bruce for permission to allow the conversation to keep on going: it was one of the little habits that made him more rebellious than usual teenagers.

He wasn't Bruce's puppet, his soldier forever marching on.

Dick let the question flow out of his mouth steadily. "Kory and I are going to my bedroom to do some homework."

To his utter confusion, the elderly gentleman snorted and patted his back. "Becoming a man, are we, eh?" he said gruffly, smelling strongly of whiskey and shellfish. The woman beside him held an expression of scandal, and the thick eyeliner that encompassed her small eyes, cracked a little.

Bruce turned to the pair, still giving a dazzling smile. "If you would excuse us for a minute, I just need to talk to my son."

The last word of the sentence made Dick slightly light-headed. He wasn't sure if Bruce actually meant it, or if it was just another way of presenting himself as a perfect father to the outside world. Following Bruce to the side of the ballroom, beside one of the wooden alcoves, he waited to see what the problem was.

Launching into a full-fledged tirade, the dark-haired man's eyebrows raised accusingly. "Is this really the most appropriate time?" he hissed, and the younger boy only stared at him. "What happens when Tim lives here? Are you going to continue doing _this_ during the day when your brother is in the room next door?!"

Bewildered, Dick managed a small, unsure, "…yeah?" He had no idea about what Bruce was ranting about, and his mind was desperately trying to come up with logical explanations, fitting jagged puzzle pieces together and failing miserably.

His mentor's face darkened, and he sighed, sounding slightly defeated. "You better be using protection. If not, there's a box in my room but you need to be in charge of getting your own."

Dick's jaw almost snapped from the notion. Bruce thought he was sleeping with Kory? He couldn't even think properly, freezing with mortification.

"N-no!" he started, and the words tumbled out of his mouth like bricks. "No! I'm not…I'm not sleep–" he began to say, but Bruce had only fixated on the first part of the sentence.

His look was almost murderous, eyes widening. He was crossing the borderline between whispering and shouting. "What do you mean you're not using protection?" Bruce growled and then his voice became a few decibels from silence, almost deadly. "I am _not_ dealing with a teenage pregnancy scandal."

Finally, Dick stuttered the sentence out, and his entire being felt like it was on fire. "I'm not sleeping with her!" he defended, exclaiming loudly. Perhaps a little too loudly, because Kory's dad was suddenly too close for comfort and he caught the teenage boy's eye. There were two short message held in those two short glances, and both of them were threatening.

"We're just friends!" Dick said, resuming back into a whisper. "Seriously…" he added, trying to prove his point.

Bruce raised an eyebrow, sounding skeptical. "Really? I didn't realise you held hands with all of your friends. How come you never do that with _Donna_?" he asked, suspicious.

Dick floundered for a whole twenty seconds, trying to come up with any reasonable excuse.

The billionaire continued, more sarcastic than ever. "And you just openly stare at the cleavage of your female friends, right?"

A lump formed in his throat that Dick couldn't get rid of. He thought he was being subtle. No wonder everybody was assuming Kory was his girlfriend. His mind quickly flashed back to the older gentleman's comment, and Dick pulled a face, slightly grossed out. If 'manhood' meant sleeping around (and unprotected sex), then he was happier being a teenager.

He didn't have a proper response for that, so he just reaffirmed his statement. "I'm not sleeping with her," he said slightly calmer.

It seemed that his mentor didn't actually believe him, but the playboy relaxed nonetheless. "I'm doing an important business deal with her parents," and Dick knew that was the most detailed information he'd ever hear about the transaction, "and if this deal fails, Wayne Enterprises will lose a lot of money. I don't care if you end up sleeping with her on a later date, but don't let her father find out."

His son almost laughed at the absurdness of it all. Bruce was happy to allow him to sleep with Kory (it was disgusting how he used the word 'sleep' instead of 'date' or anything on a less sexual note) as long as he kept it a secret from her family. Except if even if he was sleeping with Kory (he tried not to focus on that situation too much) Dick wasn't exactly going to tell her whole family was he?

He could imagine the conversation right then, sitting on the dinner table and talking to her parents: _"Did you know in Math we're doing surds? Wanna hear another thing I'm doing? Your daughter."_

Rolling his eyes, Dick ignored the remnants of Bruce's next words, and instead scanned the room for Kory. She was in the opposite corner, and although he had to squint a little to make out their faces, it was pretty obvious her parents were upset with her. He silently prayed it had nothing to do with him, and walked past one of the waiters, grabbing a small glass of Coke.

He sipped at it gently, trying to look like he was occupied so that nobody would try and to start a conversation with him. It worked, and he lingered by the dessert table, sneaking a little bit of cake in his mouth and then almost gagging when he realised the whole thing was topped with sweet cranberries and pieces of sour lemon.

Kory had finished talking to her parents, and she was coming towards him, a small smile gracing her soft features. She reached him and pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face, whilst the other hand stayed by her side, clutching her gold purse. They twisted through the maze of corridors in Wayne Manor, walking up the white double staircase with a black swirling railing.

He was surprised that she hadn't commented on the size of the house – apart from Roy, that had been a requirement when his friends had visited. Even Rachel had raised an eyebrow, looking impressed. Of course, she had come up with a sarcastic remark ten seconds later, but the action had still been committed.

A pang of guilt hit his stomach, as they turned into the hallway that led to the Family Wing. He had switched off his phone after she'd sent him an apologetic text message, and it was still sitting in the inside of his jacket pocket. Fragments of anger still resided inside of him, and thinking about it made him want to grit his teeth.

Dick suddenly remembered that Kory's house in Tamaran had been reminiscent of a palace. He stole a small glance at her, and watched with interest as she tightened her small ponytail and bit the corner of her lip. When they reached his room, he opened the door and waited for her expression.

His room was relatively neat, and he took pride in that. A large bed sat in the middle, with his chest of drawers on the left and a rolled-up mat beside it. Laminated wooden floorboards, dark red walls and a handful of lamps and lights scattered around. He had a bookcase beside the door, filled with fiction, dictionaries and the occasional comic from when he had been younger.

She didn't say anything, but with her, they always managed to slip into comfortable silence. There were some days where he was completely absorbed his thoughts, and he was grateful that she didn't force him into speaking or try and spark a conversation. Sometimes the quiet was better.

Kory looked up at one of the rare posters in his room, before turning to him with a slight grin. "AC/DC?"

The tips of his ears heated up and he nodded, slightly shamefaced. "I don't really listen to that much music," he explained, "but they're pretty good."

She didn't say anything in return, and instead continued to look around, even taking a few steps. Her fingers brushed against his _The_ _Flying Graysons_ poster, and he waited for the inevitable question to appear. Instead, her lips parted slightly, but she moved onto the little snow globe sitting on his bedside table. It had been a souvenir from the ski chalet they'd visited last year.

When the pair had finally settled by his desk, he opened a drawer and took out a small stack of paper. He scattered all of his half-completed notes of _Animal Farm_ on one side and she did the same. Hers were slightly creased in the middle, having been folded to fit in her small purse. Both of them placed their copies of the book on the table, and he passed her a pen.

"Last class we were discussing the context of the author," Kory explained, her pen lightly tapping against the surface of the paper. All of her notes were written in bright purple ink, with important sections highlighted in pink. He knew that they were probably her two favourite colours (apart from green) and it made him smile at how _obviously Kory_ the notes were. She continued, "and how it is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. We were drawing parallels between the actual events and those published in the book."

He nodded, watching her talk. It was really distracting the way her curls slipped off her shoulders and chest and landed on her back instead, and he was really tempted to pick them up and place them in their previous position. Dick tried to focus – he really did – but then his phone started buzzing in his pocket and he almost knocked over his glass of water.

Kory smiled understandingly. "Do you want to get that?" she asked, and he hesitated.

"You sure?" he asked back.

She nodded, her cheeks flushing slightly. "I was actually going to ask you where the bathroom is."

He looked at the door on the right of his bed. Cringing internally, he hoped that the bathroom wasn't a total mess (since trying to get ready for these dreaded parties usually resulted in him chucking a few things and accidentally dropping his shaving cream all over the floor). Debating whether or not to send her to the main bathroom (that nobody actually used, since there were only four of them in the house, and Jason wasn't even here), he ended up motioning to the door and giving a sheepish grin.

"Just over there," he said, "I'm sorry about the mess."

Smiling good-naturedly, Kory followed the direction of his hand and disappeared behind the door. His phone was still vibrating in his pocket, and it paused for a few seconds before resuming again. Digging it out of his pocket, Dick froze when the name came up. He closed his eyes momentarily, and against all of his common sense, answered the call.

"Hey Rachel," he greeted quietly, trying to keep the phone conversation as unnoticeable as possible.

The aforementioned girl didn't even bother with a reply, but launched into a hiss. "Why the hell don't you pick up your phone?" She sounded extremely vexed, and Dick winced at the sharpness of her tone. "It doesn't matter." she grumbled, and he could hear the sounds of other indiscernible voices in the background.

He glanced at the paper in front of him whilst Rachel continued. "We're in the car outside of Wayne Manor." There was a pause and then a " _Gar shut up!"_ before the conversation resumed. There was a hint of bitterness that Dick could detect when she said, "you can bring Kory along too, if you want," and an extra pause before an impatient, "but hurry up!"

Dick hadn't even said anything in the conversation, but she'd already hung up. He was torn between following Bruce's orders (and staying at the party) or ditching it to hang out with his friends. But even then, would they manage it? Would Kory even want to go? He knew that his friends wouldn't express their displeasure of having her over in front of her, but he also knew that the whole cafeteria incident yesterday hadn't helped much either.

There was a sound of the bathroom door unlocking, and Kory emerged a few seconds later. He dropped his pen on the desk, catching it before it rolled off, and finally decided to bite the bullet.

"Kory?" he asked, as she settled down in the chair beside him.

"Hmm?" she asked, and he swore she had batted her eyelashes at him.

"Uh, are you interested in going to a different party?" he asked, and it was obvious the redhead was waiting for him to elaborate. "Wally's having a party right now, and he was wondering if you wanted to come." That was a small lie, but he brushed the guilt off. "It's your choice though," he added, almost as an afterthought, making sure that he didn't pressure her into doing anything she didn't want to do.

He watched the girl's expression change from confusion to worry. "Are you sure?" she asked, sounding unsure. "I don't think my parents would approve…and they have not been extremely pleased with me in the past few days."

Dick was already skating on thin ice with Bruce, and he realised with a start that the repercussions of attending this party would probably be dire. He was aware of the stress his mentor was currently enduring due to the adoption process, and he also knew that Wayne Enterprises was under a lot of public scrutiny. As much as he hated the upper-class society, there was a reason why Dick needed to be present to show his support.

"Yeah," he empathized, "I know the feeling. It's fine, we can just continue our study session." he shot her a reassuring smile, and the scrunch between her eyebrows disappeared.

Typing a quick text message to Rachel, apologizing to her, he then put his phone back into his pocket. It vibrated once, notifying him that he had a message, but the dark-haired boy left it alone.

He had a sinking feeling that Rachel would be upset about it, even if she didn't avidly show it. He'd been friends with her since sophomore year, and their similarities and shared interests had allowed them to secure a strong relationship within weeks of meeting one another. He knew that she'd had some personal issues to deal with during freshman year – and that's why the school had instantly labelled her negatively – but despite her occasionally snarky behaviour and erratic temperament, Rachel Roth was a good person.

She was completely different from Kory, but then he didn't think he had ever met anybody remotely as interesting as Kory. She was in a category of herself: playful, flirty, friendly, kind, funny, and absolutely gorgeous. He'd never really interacted with her before the beginning of this year, which only helped to build up the damaging image he had created for her. Dick regretfully remembered that he'd brushed her off as another one of Kitten's minions: too interested in her looks to actually try to amount to anything.

And for Kitten herself, that description was worryingly accurate. The number of times he had heard stories of how Kitten had blackmailed innocent teachers, and almost wrecked the home life of another made him wonder about what sort of upbringing she had experienced. Mr Moth was a silent figure, looming behind her words, but never actually present.

Kory looked up at him, a hint of amusement in her green eyes. "Are you paying attention?" she teased.

Dick lied, cheeks heating up. "Yup," he nodded. "I was just going to write your point down."

He knew that his answer had been a mistake, because she laughed freely. There were undertones of light-hearted complaint in her next sentence, and she pouted slightly. "Dick!" she exclaimed, her hand resting on his outstretched arm that sat on the desk. He reveled in the feeling, refusing to break eye contact.

"The last point I made," she giggled, "was that your bowtie has gone wonky."

His left hand clasped his neck, and he began loosening it. "Oh."

"Wait!" Kory ordered, brushing his hand away. "Let me do it."

This was the second time that evening that she'd found a way to help him, and his mind immediately went into hyperdrive, analyzing all of her actions. While she undid the necktie, Dick tried to find a place to focus on that didn't involve Kory's figure, and it ended up being the black poster on the wall.

Her fingers skillfully loosened it fully, and she began the arduous process of redoing it. There was something intimate about the way she did it; he could feel her warm breath on his cheek, and smell her fruity perfume. Was Kory trying to send him a signal? Or was she just naturally openly affectionate? He hadn't seen enough interaction with other people to prove the second, and it was starting to confuse him even further.

Babs and Bette had never gotten so close, had never done something so simple yet made it feel intimate, and he'd dated both of them. Donna, as open as she tried to be, struggled a lot with her identity (having experienced a difficult childhood) and often ended up closing herself from others. Rachel didn't exactly thrive on physical comfort either, and the other girls in his classes didn't act like this. Although he guessed that could be chalked down to the fact that he hardly interacted with girls his age (with the exception of his friends).

Kory was wearing red lip gloss that was really shiny. He realised that he had started staring at her lips (which was never a good action to do, unless you were about to kiss somebody) and his gaze flickered to the poster behind her again. Her mouth was set in a determined line, but the corners of it tugged upwards.

"Is this too tight?" she questioned, but he missed the question. She asked again, and he felt the familiar feelings of embarrassment resurface. "Dick? Is it too tight?"

"No," he mustered, "um, it's fine."

Kory adjusted it once more, and then her hands dropped. Her hand gripped his shoulders, and she tilted her head to the side, her lips lifting upwards. "There," she said.

She hadn't moved from her position, and the proximity was doing things to his head. "Um...t-thanks," he stuttered out, and it was starting to get really hot in the room. Eventually she pulled back, and her attention began to move towards their _Animal Farm_ notes, even though they hadn't actually made any new ones yet. He finally leant back in his chair, hands instinctively checking that his bowtie was straight (not that he doubted Kory's ability to tie them perfectly).

More space meant that it was easier for him to focus again. Dick finally found his voice, and raised his eyebrows at her. "Do you do this often then?" he teased; her cheeks turned crimson and her smile broadened. It was so easy to poke fun at Kory, and her reactions often doted between endearing, sexy and cute.

"I usually do it for Ryan," she mumbled. Her arm had moved off of the desk when she had readjusted her bowtie, but it was back again, pressed against his own.

Internally, Dick cringed, knowing that he was crossing a thin line between friend and 'the boy who was similar to her brother.' He refused to comment on the situation further, and instead scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. "We should probably start on those notes," Dick pointed out.

Kory nodded, and he glanced at his own notes, reading out what he had written. "Animal Farm is a satirical comment on the corrupting influence of power." There was a lull in his sentence, before he remarked, "I don't really have any proper evidence for that, though." He opened his book, and began skimming the page.

Realizing that she was doing the same, he could help observe that her hair fell in soft cascades on the book. For the fiftieth time that night, he chastised himself for his failure to stop getting distracted by her appearance. He was starting to feel really shallow, constantly gawking at her. She had definitely noticed – she had to have – and was probably being too polite to point it out.

"I think I found something!" Kory exclaimed, her finger positioned under the quote. She slid the book towards him, and leant on his side. He ended up with a handful of hair grazing his cheek, smelling strongly of strawberries.

He only glanced at the quote, far too sidetracked to actually bother analyzing it completely. It seemed to have the right idea though, so he nodded anyway. "Yeah, it works. What themes have you got written down?"

She shuffled to the side, looking at her neat handwriting. "The corruption of socialist ideas in the Soviet Union; the usage of language to increase power; the danger of a naïve working class."

He went through the themes in his head, before Dick turned back to her. "Have you got anything on the societal tendency towards class stratification?"

Kory stared at him, before breaking out into a grin. Her bubbliness was infectious, and he copied her expression, scratching his arm. "No. What have you written?"

Feeling much more relaxed, he resumed his position of leaning back on his chair and folded his arms, almost smugly. "Okay," he began. "So you know how when the farmer, Mr Jones, leaves, there's a pause in control?" he asked, and waited for her to nod in agreement. "Previously, all of the 'classes' (or in this case, animals) teamed up together, but after this lull, it doesn't take long for somebody else to come into control."

He began to explain it more fully to her, adding the occasional doodle on the corner of his sheet in pencil. Kory had always been a good listener (although he believed that _nobody_ could rival Donna, not even Rachel, but she did come close) and this evening only demonstrated it. She jotted down the occasional note, and he was surprised how focused they both stayed on the topic. He kept expecting for his mind to wander again, and result in them discussing something ridiculous, like whether or not the Super Bowl was rigged (he'd done that twice with Wally now).

"Hey." Dick finally decided to change topics. He wanted to ask something that had been bugging him for the past few days, but hadn't found the appropriate time. He knew that it was going to be sensitive for Kory, and that's why he chose to do it when she was much more calm and away from prying eyes of students.

"What's your relationship with Jenny like?"

It was obvious she didn't know where the subject was heading, but she answered anyway. "Jenny? I haven't really spoken to her much, but she is not a fan of Kitten. Why?"

He looked at her, deadly serious. "I think she was the one who wrote all of the graffiti."

Kory tilted her head to the side, alarmed. "Really? How? Why?" Her questions poured out, and it was perceptible that she had been wondering about this for quite a while. Closing her eyes, her expression cracked slightly, and it looked like she was about to cry. Her fingers curled by her sides, and he did his best to look reassuring. When she had softened, Dick took a deep breath.

He began to explain his theory to her.


	15. fifteen

_Author's Note: so we're starting to pick up the pace a little more yay! I have a much better idea of how long this story will be, so that's a wonderful thing for me (and you guys too, because it means that the direction it's going in will be a lot more obvious lol). Also, the reviews I have been receiving are absolutely wonderful, and I appreciate every single one of them!_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Fifteen: Palms Touching, Fingertips Brushing**_

* * *

Kory bit her lip and tried to focus on her Chemistry lesson. It didn't help that there were only five minutes until the bell rang, nor that the topic they were doing had become the most tedious one to ever grace the students of Brookford High. But, she also knew, without a doubt, that time was going to pass quickly: they were, after all, breaking into the first days of October.

The weeks were rolling around, albeit a little rougher than she would have liked. Names were becoming a little quieter (but they didn't disappear) and most people chose to instead fixate her with an icy glare. The graffiti was slowly disappearing and the only remnants were the faded letters that had stained the walls.

She tapped her pen against her notebook, suppressing a smile when the bell finally let out a loud chirp. Dick was waiting for her outside of the door, holding his backpack. "Hey," he greeted, once she had finally escaped, "how was class?"

Following him to their secluded area outside, her answer was honest. "A little tiring. How was American History?"

He pulled a face as he sat down, and she laughed freely. The butterflies were back in her stomach, fluttering around delicately and making her chest tighten. They flitted about, heating up her palms and forcing her to move her attention to something that _wasn't_ related to how gorgeous he looked in the sunlight.

Leaning back on the bench, she watched as he dug into his bag and pulled out a black jotter. His fingers found a pen several seconds later, and then he revealed the contents to her. It was everything they had discovered about the graffiti, from the notes on the handwriting, and the colours of the ink to their list of possible suspects. Kory hated the thought of somebody disliking her so intently that they had felt the need to spread rumors about her, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.

They had been following the lipstick lead for a few weeks now, slowly crossing off names. He had narrowed it down to ten names, but even then, without proper evidence, it was going to be extremely difficult to pinpoint the perpetrator. A little part of her was frightened to find out the truth, and although this small section liked being in the dark, the redhead knew she had to learn the truth.

He leaned closer to her, resting the book on his thighs. She scanned the list and her breath got stuck in her throat when she noticed the last name. _Amber Roberts._ The ginger-haired girl who had only befriended them after Terra had moved Florida. Kory had only known her for a couple of months, but they had shared similar interests in fashion and that had helped to secure their friendship.

Her mind immediately ran through possible motives, but only one thrust out. But nobody knew of it – Philip had _sworn_ to keep it a secret – and Amber alongside the rest of the school were the least likely to hear about it.

"Hmm?" she asked, when Dick called her name and broke her out of her thoughts.

"Do you know if Amber Roberts has any lipstick?" It sounded like he was repeating the question, and she quietly flushed, embarrassed. The question itself sounded extremely odd, but it made sense to both of them.

"I'm," she paused softly, trying to regulate her breathing, "I'm not sure. She definitely has a lot of lip gloss. Her mom works for a makeup company so she has a variety."

The corners of his lips turned downwards, and he pointed to another name. "What about Karen Beecher?"

It didn't take long for Kory to conjure up an image of the African-American cheerleader. Karen had always been nice to her; it was her part of her intrinsically strong nature, the same nature that refused to take any bullshit, even from her boyfriend, Vic. The motive would either have to be extremely twisted or not exist at all, and Kory believed the latter.

"She wears lipstick but she is probably one of the only people who didn't believe the graffiti." Kory explained, trying to get Dick on the same line of thinking. He understood immediately, and nodded his head in agreement.

"I mean it could be an act," he pondered, "but it's unlikely."

They went through the same process with the other eight names, but nothing was crossed out. Dick was beginning to sound stressed, and as much as she cared about him, she didn't like this new side of him. One that was obsessed with work and allowed this mystery to be the _only_ thought in his mind. It was frustrating.

She leant against his shoulder, hair accidentally brushing his cheek. Biting back a yawn, she asked, "can we go get lunch, now?"

He must have forgotten where she was currently situated, because he turned his head to look at her, and his lips barely missed hers. Dick turned a dark shade of red, and she immediately drew back, as if it would prevent any further feelings from developing. Her face heated up, and she couldn't maintain eye contact with him for long.

"Sorry," Dick mumbled, his eyes on the ground.

Echoing his apology, she waited patiently for his answer. He cleared his throat before nodding, "yeah, we can go." Standing up, he let his bag hang lazily on his shoulder as they found their way back into the main school building.

With the rumors eventually dying down as people got more used to her presence, Kory had found it easier to navigate through everyday life. For example, people were subtler with their remarks about her in the cafeteria, and although she wanted them to disappear altogether, it was considerable progress.

Yesterday she had sat with Dick on their own little table, tucked in the corner. It was a cozy setting: a much more enjoyable place to eat her lunch, but she was aware that he had other friends, and keeping him all to herself was selfish. She was starting to reconnect old bonds that had been broken due to the graffiti, but it was taking a long time and she was running out of patience. Her impulsiveness was beginning to take control, and that had previously led her into a lot of problems.

Following him through the large double doors, she waited in the queue for her lunch. Dick unsubtly hovered around the small table that sold fruit, and it was obvious he was waiting for her. Kory appreciated the gesture – he was showing his (forever existing) support without infantilizing her by being at her side every second of the day.

Her fingers clenched the cream-coloured tray as she received a large dollop of brown mixture, and a spoonful of thin fries. The lunch lady didn't respond to her smile, but Kory beamed regardless. She grabbed a bottle of water, and lined up to pay a few minutes later. The process was quick, and within ten seconds she was back beside Dick, giggling softly at one of his comments.

"You weren't very subtle," she pointed out, as they walked towards his friends.

He tried to play it off, adjusting his jacket slightly. "I _was_ going to buy some fruit…" he trailed off.

" _Right_ ," she said, unconvinced. "And you just happened to finish at the same time as me?" she teased, feeling a smile work its way on her lips.

Dick scratched the back of his neck, yanking at the top of his t-shirt. "…Yeah?"

Laughing quietly, they made their way to his table. She could already see the petite figure of Rachel Roth with her dark hair; the dirty blond tangles of Garfield Logan; the gingery tufts of Wally West. Her stomach lurched as she noticed the growing number of eyes on her, but she focused on her destination and ignored the urge to run out. Their table was towards the exit, neatly placed by the cream-coloured walls filled with overenthusiastic posters about vegetables and healthy eating.

The dark-haired boy beside her bent towards her, his warm breath catching the side of her throat. He sounded slightly nervous, and she wondered why. Kory doubted that his friends were horrible people – the stories he had told her about them completely contradicted that statement – but she prayed that they hadn't already made up their mind about her.

"That's Gar," he pointed out, and it was cute how he reiterated their names, almost as if he was unsure if she actually knew each person. But Kory had spent the last three years as one of the most popular girls in the school, and she hadn't earned that position without being aware of every single member of the students in her year.

She playfully swatted his hand away, using the other to keep the tray upright. "I know," she reminded reassuringly, and he returned with an apologetic smile. It was one that forced her fingers to tingle slightly: it was one of his special smiles, one that he only gave to her.

Garfield was the first one to notice them. He was dipping his fry into the same brown mush currently sitting on Kory's plate. "Hey Dick!" he greeted, and she tried to ignore the way his face drooped slightly, "…oh and um…Kory."

Rachel's back was turned to them, but she spun around slowly to look at them. Her thin lips were painted with eggplant-coloured lipstick, and she had a thin layer of eyeliner surrounding her dark eyes. She was extremely pretty, in an ethereal sort of way.

Dick put his lunchbox down beside her, before looking back up at Kory. The redhead stood irresolute, pondering on where she could sit. She made a move to walk to the other side, but he touched her arm softly.

"Hey, come sit beside me." Dick requested. He turned to where Rachel was currently perched, "Rachel, do you mind moving up a little bit?"

Kory winced at his casualness. He hadn't seen the way the girl's lips had curved downwards, the way her expression of calm had briefly faltered and exposed her hurt. "Dick," Kory began to say, "it's okay…"

But Rachel had started to move, and Kory hadn't missed the strange look on Garfield's face. Embarrassed, she sat down next to Dick and there was a beat of silence. Frantically searching for a topic, she noticed the poetry book resting beside Rachel's plate and used that to her advantage.

"You are a fan of Edgar Allen Poe?" Kory asked, and momentarily considered leaving the situation before it could get any worse. Her accent was back and she'd almost jumbled up the words of a sentence – how humiliating! She felt more like an outsider than she had before, and her fist clenched the plastic fork in her hand, almost snapping it into two.

Rachel raised a delicately arched eyebrow, looking surprised. "You're a fan of Poe?"

Kory nodded, "My favourite one is 'The Tell-Tale Heart,'" she answered honestly. Apparently that seemed to be the wrong answer, because the other girl didn't press any further and silence once again resumed.

Dick cleared his throat and the redhead used that opportunity to glance around the table. Wally was munching on a candy bar, interested in a random crack in the table; Garfield on the other hand was munching on a piece of mushy carrot and his gaze was up on the ceiling. She tried to eat a stale fry and grimaced at the flavor, reminiscent of cardboard.

"Hey Gar." Her best friend had finally started a conversation, and she was grateful to him for not allowing the discussion to flounder and die into nothingness. "Bruce got the latest installation of 'Samurai Soldiers' as a present last week for Tim. Do you wanna come around to try it?"

It was almost comical how much Gar's face brightened. Kory giggled softly to herself, aware of how big the game was. Unfortunately for the rest of her family, it had been the only thing Ryan had wanted to talk about. The blond boy nodded quickly, using his other hand to stuff the remainder of the carrot into his mouth.

"Dude, totally!" he exclaimed. "We should have a samurai party!"

The dark-haired boy looked slightly skeptical at the prospect. "Uh…" he trailed off, and Kory bit back a small laugh. "I mean, if you wanna do it then yeah? As long as we don't trash the house we should be okay…" Then he said to himself, much more quietly, "I guess we could use this opportunity to make more friends for Tim."

Kory had met Tim only once, but the resemblance (in terms of personality _and_ physical appearance) was uncanny. All of the Wayne men had black unruly hair and piercing blue eyes, and Tim fit the mold perfectly. He was also a fan of detective novels, and had brought his little collection along with him. Her brother and Tim were very similar and as soon as Tim had properly settled, she would introduce them. She didn't know anything about Tim's past, except about his newly-acquired orphan status. _That_ thought tugged at her heart and made her chest hurt.

"Where did you get your outfit?" Kory asked Rachel, having been admiring the combination for the past few minutes. It was a slim-fitting violet top with dark jeans and a gold-coloured belt: stylish, practical and really cute.

Rachel's countenance didn't change, and neither did her tone or pitch. "From the Mall," she answered, and it was obvious from her short answer that she wasn't very interested in conversations about clothing.

Continuing undeterred, Kory hoped that their discussion could lead to something else instead. "Which store? We could go to the Mall next Sunday if you're not busy?" she asked, hoping to get to know the quiet girl better. She wanted to befriend Dick's friends, not just for his sake but for her own too. The loneliness could sometimes get unbearable, and she hated having to rely on Dick all the time, as sweet (and helpful) as he was.

"I'm not interested in shopping, sorry." Rachel finished off, with a blunt tone.

Kory winced internally, and took a tiny sip of her water. Usually, attempts of conversation didn't affect her, but there was something shameful about this try, and she guessed it was due to the urgency of the situation. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that Dick was constantly stretched between spending time with her and the rest of his friends, and she was aware that she couldn't survive the rest of the year with one friend and a couple of acquaintances. And making friends had never been hard for her – it had come naturally to her – until the beginning of this year.

Her hand rested on her lap, and Dick passed her a piece of his sandwich with a sympathetic smile. She softened at his thoughtful action, and gently pushed her tray of school lunch forward, away from her. The taste was a thousand times better than anything the school could ever provide, she noted, as she munched on it quietly.

Gar's eyes widened and he almost jumped up. "Hey!" he called out, indignant. "How come Kory gets some of Dick's food? He never gives _me_ any!" He was swinging between the line of teasing and annoyance, and the aforementioned girl couldn't decide which one he was actually on.

Dick turned red, the corners of his cheeks flushing brightly. Rachel snorted derisively, on the verge of rolling her eyes. "Dick eats a _ham_ sandwich every day," she pointed out, "and you're a vegetarian."

The tips of Gar's ears went a dark shade of pink, and so did the tip of his nose. "Oh yeah…" he realised, flashing a sheepish grin.

Maybe it was the remnants of Rachel's rejection still circulating through her body, or maybe it was tiredness finally setting in, but Kory's shoulders slumped downward. Her fingers tangled with the hem of her skirt, tugging at it and loosening stray threads. Watching as Gar began to ramble about the latest game, she focused on observing the latest posters.

And then she felt it. Dick's hand had moved from its place on his lap to her own. His fingers intertwined with hers, palms touching, fingertips brushing against each other. There was an incalculable warmth that ran through her, as she shifted slightly to accommodate the new position. She dared to steal a glance at him, but he was absorbed in the conversation with Gar. When he laughed, she felt it too, and suppressed a smile.

Kory closed her eyes briefly, and wondered whether or not he had made a mistake. _X'hal_ she had a crush on him – _who wouldn't?_ – but after everything that had happened with Philip, she wasn't ready. Her whole life was currently extremely messy, and regardless of how sweet or charming or funny Dick was, she still had a few more problems to overcome before should could even _fantasize_ about dating him. It was stressful, holding feelings for him and continuously trying to ignore them.

"…apparently one of the new features allows you to customize your enemy's skill level. So when you join the Samurai war, you can control your chances of success better," Gar explained.

Wally shrugged, popping a curved fry into his mouth. "But doesn't that take away from the challenge? Ladies love a guy who can take a challenge!" the redhead boy exclaimed, before shoving another handful of fries into his mouth. Kory didn't understand how he could manage to eat the revolting food. It must have taken a long time to consider the meal even _remotely_ edible.

"Video game challenges don't count," Rachel pointed out, rather obviously.

He waved a dismissive hand. "Minor technicalities," he brushed off. Even Rachel smirked at that.

" _Right_ ," she agreed, the words stinging with sarcasm.

Meanwhile, Kory continued to scan Gar's tray until she found what she needed. Situated to the left of his plate were two sachets of mustard dressing, which although wasn't her preferred choice of food, would make do for the current situation. She quietly caught his eye, uttering the words in between the arguments of Wally and Rachel.

The blond boy nodded, "sure." He passed over the sachets into her left hand, the right hand still interlocked in her best friend's. Dick's small container of tomatos was only a few inches away from her, and she hoped he wouldn't mind if she ate a few of them. Grabbing a serviette, she poured a little part of the sauce onto the stolen tomatos.

"Uh…Kory? What are you doing?"

Dick's voice suddenly rang in her ears, and she tried to determine the tone. He didn't sound particularly angry, just cutely confused, something that stirred a great amount of affection inside of her. The whole table's attention was on her, and Gar looked as if he was torn between fascination and disgust.

She offered him her most innocent expression she could muster, even battering her eyelashes slightly. "Eating your tomatos with mustard?"

He gave her an indecipherable look, and Gar stepped in, wrinkling his nose. "Mustard? That sounds disgusting!" he exclaimed, before brightening. "And awesome! Dude, _lemme_ try some!"

Handing him her biggest tomato, she frowned when the boy's cheeks stained purple and he gagged, almost spitting it out on the table. His tongue stuck out and his jaw opened before closing: no sound was emitted. Coughing, Gar downed a whole bottle of water before he could finally say something.

"That was probably the worst thing I've ever eaten!" he declared, before adding, "well apart from that horrible time when I accidentally ate a piece of Rachel's chicken pizza!" The boy sent a glare to the forenamed girl, who only raised an eyebrow in response.

"I did tell you it was chicken," she pointed out, but Gar ignored her.

For the first time that afternoon, Kory properly studied Wally West, who had just volunteered to try a tomato. She'd heard all about him: the fastest runner in school; one of the best pranksters; somebody who avidly tried (and failed) to stay out of detention; a self-proclaimed ladies man who _really_ wasn't very talented with the ladies (although she guessed that was a little biased, having heard it from Dick).

He was wearing a yellow shirt with a lightening bolt on it and dark jeans, the latter ending up with a splatter of mustard as it oozed off the tomato. Kory watched with curiosity, waiting for his reaction as he shoved it into his mouth. Within two bites, he was grinning wildly.

"This tastes awesome!" the speedster blurted out, sounding extremely hyperactive.

Kory chalked that down to the numerous candy bar wrappers surrounding his tray, and that was confirmed when Dick groaned, "Wally you really need to reduce the amount of candy you eat!"

Wally only winked, causing the rest of the table to simultaneously complain, whilst Kory only giggled. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, just in time for the boy to grab another tomato and then accidentally drop it under the table. He disappeared under the table and reemerged five seconds later, smirking slightly.

At the same time, Dick took a hurried glance at the half-empty table in the middle of the cafeteria, that currently housed Kitten, Hayley and Amber. They were all eating organic lunches with cups of chai latté, texting and talking loudly. He knew that Amber was almost finished, and he figured that if he wanted to talk to her, he would have to catch her at a time where she wasn't directly under Kitten's influence.

It didn't take long for the mahogany-ponytailed teenage girl to pick up her bag and begin back walking through the double doors. Checking his watch, Dick realised that he had half-an-hour until classes resumed, which was plenty of time for him to start his interrogation and finish lunch with his friends.

Amber disappeared through the doors, and Dick dropped Kory's hand. "I've just realised I've left something in my locker," he explained, standing up. "I'm gonna go get it; I'll be right back."

Kory was wearing a gorgeous smile as she asked, "Do you want me to come with you?"

The temptation to let her was strong, but Dick knew that her presence would only complicate things. Amber wouldn't confess anything if she was forced to do it in front of Kory; similarly, the reaction of his best friend could prove to be negative, thereby upsetting her even further. And if the truth was revealed, and his hunch was correct, then Kory would be forced to acknowledge the truth that her supposed 'friend' had been lying to her for months.

With all of these problems running through his mind, Dick shook his head. "It's fine," he said, before glancing at the rest of the table.

Wally and Gar were comparing another video game, and Rachel was the only one fully paying attention to his hasty exit. She studied him suspiciously, but he didn't have enough time to explain the situation (especially not in front of Kory) so he only apologised and sprinted out of the cafeteria.

The doors slammed behind him as he entered the blue hallway, and spotted the retreating figure of Amber turning the hallway. A thousand game plans ran through his mind, and he picked the one that would look the most convincing. Dick continued to sprint faster, relief coursing through his veins when he realised that the hallway was empty except for the seventeen-year-old girl.

His legs slowed down as the heir of Wayne Enterprises purposely tumbled into the unsuspecting girl. They were both thrown in different directions. She was clutching her _Dolce & Gabbana_ bag, probably a gift from Kitten, and it clattered to the ground as she was pushed into the wall, whilst he found himself on the floor. The contents of her purse scattered on the ground, including four types of lip gloss and one tube of lipstick.

As Amber began to pick herself up, he quickly grabbed her lipstick. "I'm so sorry!" he blurted out, stretching out a hand to help her up. She grabbed it, thankful, with bright cheeks.

"No, it's fine," she said quietly, "it was probably my fault too, for standing in the way."

She started to collect up her things, before her lips parted and her eyes widened. Her hands waved around on the floor, and she crawled towards the locker, knees grating against the tiled floor. The swaying motion of her head as she looked around made her ponytail swish from side-to-side.

The tube was safely tucked in his front pocket as he analyzed her frantic reaction. Trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, Dick asked "Hey, are you okay?"

Amber stood up, and dusted off her pink skirt. "I can't find my lipstick," she explained, becoming more distressed with each passing second. "I know it fell out of my bag but I can't find it. I think it rolled underneath the lockers or something…"

It was the final part of his plan, that was the hardest to execute. Digging it out of his pocket, he pretended to bend down and pick it up, before producing it in his left hand. "Is this it?" he asked, feigning concern.

"Yeah!" the girl exclaimed, reaching out to take it. Dick to a step towards her, and twisted his leg so that he began to fall towards the side. Unscrewing the cap, the result was a bright mark of lipstick staining the paint of the wall and causing Amber to shriek in surprise. He finally landed on his hands, but the damage was done.

"Shit!" Dick cried out. "I'm so sorry Amber! I didn't mean to waste your lipstick."

No sound came out of her mouth as Amber stared at him. Eventually her breathing became less ragged, and she nodded, sounding more scared than angry. "No, um it's okay. I kinda have to g– "

She was cut off as Dick pretended to connect the dots. He'd chosen a wall where the graffiti had been partially written in sharpie and lipstick. It had been entirely luck that Amber only owned one shade, and that she had happened to bring it on the day he had been looking to discover the truth.

"Wait a second," he said, and observed how her fingers trembled. "The colours are the same!"

Amber's eyes were big, as she held her bag tightly to her shoulder. "No, no, no…I didn't do it." Her whole body shook, and her voice was the embodiment of terrified, as she stuttered her way through her lie. "I didn't…"

Crossing his arms, Dick raised an eyebrow. He didn't bother explaining the evidence, mainly because he knew the clock was ticking. All he wanted to do was to find out who else was behind this. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach: he had a very good idea of who was behind it, but the truth was going to absolutely destroy Kory.

Although his mind was burning with hundreds of questions, he ignored the most obvious one (why) and instead dropped his arms to his side. "Who did you do this with?" he asked. "I know you can't have possibly done this by yourself."

It looked like Amber was going to finally grace him with an answer, before he heard the unavoidable shrieking of Kitten Moth, only a few paces behind him. She was dressed in all pink, accompanied by the pale Hayley Adaro, who was dressed just as similarly. Dick froze, scouring for the nearest exit or means of escape. He knew he wasn't going to be able to survive another encounter with Kitten.

"Richie!" she screamed, and Dick's palm immediately found itself on his forehead.

He didn't even need to reply, because Kitten was already continuing her 'little' greeting. Her hands immediately encircled his body, hugging him tightly, before they settled on his chest, slowly moving lower. He pushed her back immediately, ignoring her fake gasp. Apparently she'd never heard of the term 'sexual harassment' and even if she had, she didn't seem to mind it.

Confronting her immediately was the only way to stop himself from gagging on the spot. "I know you were in charge of the graffiti," he accused. "You're the only one who would write graffiti in sharpie or lipstick, and because of your dad's position on the school board you have an access to the keys during summer."

Kitten only rolled her eyes. "Richie, why would I do that? Why would I waste my life writing about that _slut_ you hang around with?" She spat the word out, refusing to refer to Kory unless it was by some derogatory name. "Why do you even hang around with her? She's the biggest whore on this planet!"

His fists clenched tightly by his sides. "Don't you fucking dare call her that," he threatened.

She bit her lip, shaking her head slightly. "It doesn't matter what I call her. I didn't do anything."

"You did," he insisted.

"What does it matter? You have no proper evidence. Except for a measly matching lipstick colour. Nobody will believe you and my daddy definitely won't let you stay in this school after hearing such accusations against his daughter." Her words were like venom, seeping into his skin.

As much as Dick hated to admit it, the blonde monster was right. He was treading on thin ice, and unless he had proper confirmation that it was all three of them responsible for everything, he could kiss the rest of his academic career down the drain. Kitten flicked her blonde hair, smiling sickly, reminiscent of a vulture before it killed its tiny mouse prey.

"I think you should go back to your little lunch table," she advised, "before I tell the principal how you assaulted poor Amber here."

Dick couldn't breathe. Would she really do that? Lie to the principal (and then law enforcement)? Something as small as a few words would destroy his life completely, destroy the lives of everybody around him. It would explode into pain and frustration, ruin the reputation of him, Bruce and Tim as well as snowball into thousands of problems that he would have to encounter in the future.

He was beginning to uncover the proper side of Kitten Moth, one that contained many traits held together by links of pure evil. What the fuck was wrong with this girl?

He hadn't moved, hadn't taken another step. Kitten tapped her heel impatiently, and Dick stole a small glance at Amber. She looked the guiltiest out of all of them, fresh tears brimming at the bottom of her brown eyes. She made small gasping noises from the back of her throat, eventually wiping the water away from her eyes with her sleeve.

"Go!" Kitten ordered, snapping her fingers like he was a dog. He didn't need another instruction. Running back to the cafeteria, Dick tried to avoid the taste of bile in his throat. He had never encountered such coldness in a person before (with the unfortunate exception of Tony Zucco, but that was a story for another time).

He was going to do something about the situation, but he had to figure out what first. Kitten had sandwiched him into an awkward position, one that could potentially destroy his whole life. But then he remembered that the charges of graffiti was prison, and she probably didn't want to spend the next year or so in a juvenile detention center.

It didn't take long for him to find himself back in the cafeteria, sitting in his seat. Kory was looking at him worriedly, finishing the remnants of his tomatos. The conversation between his friends was becoming infuriatingly dizzying, and he had to grab her arm tightly to stop himself from vomiting.

She looked up at him immediately, face framed with red curls. "Are you okay?" she murmured, between the fragments of sentences.

Dick looked up at her, wiping a thin layer of sweat off his forehead.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he lied.


	16. sixteen

_Author's Note: What is this witchcraft? Val updating early? Are you dreaming? The answer is no! :D_

 _So I was supposed to aim to finish this by wednesday, but then justice league vs teen titans came out and i fell in love with the DickKory scenes! seriously, there are only two scenes where they interact (and like dick is in three scenes altogether), but both of these scenes are perfection (but also kinda sexual lol). I live for DickKory cutesy conversations on Skype! :)_

 _please remember to tell me what you want me to do for April 18th, aka the one-year anniversary of my time on FF!_

 _Roy is an asshole but we love him!_ _DC canon states Donna Troy's birthday to be October 11th. Also, bear with me with the twist at the end, more will be explained, I promise! :)_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Sixteen: Her Knight in Shining Armour, the Handsome Philip**_

* * *

Humming softly to herself, Kory tucked the birthday card into her purse and readjusted her coat. Donna's present was safely placed in her bag, wrapped in fluorescent paper and ribbon. It had taken an hour to properly wrap it: the ribbon had gotten tangled in her hair and the glitter had ended up embedded in the downstairs carpet.

One of her oldest friends was turning eighteen today and was throwing a small impromptu party to celebrate. Donna Troy, the Greek girl who had been part of her gymnastics club and volleyball team since Kory had been eight, was more like a sister than her biological one had ever been. She'd accompanied Kory on many spontaneous shopping trips including the occasional indulgent moments of visiting the local ice-cream bar.

Kory ran a brush through a handful of curls before hunting around for the car keys. As soon as she had picked them up, a loud scream echoed through the house and her sister charged down the stairs, with a murderous glint in her eyes. Her hair flew wildly behind her in dark strands, and the dress that she was wearing rode up at the front slightly.

"Kory!" she screamed, and the aforementioned girl looked up, reminiscent of a deer in headlights. "You stole –" she began, and Kory's entire being frozen. X'hal wouldn't help her now, not when the truth had finally seeped out into the limelight. "– my hairdryer!" her sister finished off.

The relief coursing through Kory's vein was indescribable. Guilt had never been a good look on her, and although it had been pushed into the back of her mind, the new freedom in the past weeks had brought it back again. Except this time, it was stronger, digging into her skin and making everything dizzy.

Shaking her head in disagreement, the redhead crossed her arms and sighed. "I didn't touch your hairdryer, Kim!" she said, before turning her attention elsewhere, making sure she had everything she needed.

Her older sister's hands found themselves on Kory's arms, as Kim stepped closer. "I don't believe you," she accused, gripping the skin tightly. Wincing as the nails dug into her flesh, Kory observed the red marks and immediately yanked her arm back.

Kim had always been violent, preferring to scratch and claw instead of listen. It was evident from the way her lips turned downwards into a fierce scowl, and from the way her eyes scanned the room, coldly, almost calculatingly, that her sister almost found a small inkling of enjoyment in her vicious actions. The tears welled up in Kory's eyes as she softly rubbed her arms, from equal parts confusion and pain.

Their relationship had always been tumultuous, but after the summer had ended, her sister's temper had died down and they'd gotten closer (much to her irredeemable guilt). But now, the picture standing in front of her was completely different, and it was extremely puzzling. Her sister was the embodiment of fury, and that only prevented Kory from telling the truth.

"You're a bitch, you know that right?" Kim said, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "You have no right to steal my stuff. I can't believe you took my _hairdryer_! What sort of person are you?"

The tears pricked at her eyes, and her throat became dry. "I did _not_ touch it." Kory repeated, trying to turn her voice into a hiss, but failing sorrowfully.

"Don't lie," Kim threatened, and her tone of voice invoked a mixture of emotions, including anger. Her sister had no right to blame her for her own misplacement. Kory wasn't the good little scapegoat; she was a real person with feelings that didn't deserve to be treated that way, regardless of how her sister was feeling.

"I had nothing to do with it!" she protested, the volume of her voice increasing with each word. She softened slightly, apologetic, but still fierce. Swinging her person over her shoulder, she said, "I have to go now."

As she picked up her things, and made her way to the front door, she waited for the inevitable comment. The one that would send her spiraling into tears, but make the guilt a little easier to bear. When she had been younger, it had usually been a variation of the typical "I hate you," but as they had grown older it had become more focused on looks and less on the nature of their relationship.

But for once, Kim stayed silent. They keys jingled in the lock as she opened the door and cast a small glance in the direction of her sister. Kim was still standing there seething, but there was an obvious lack of a biting phrase.

Swallowing, Kory shut the door and focused on the bright outdoors instead. The sun came in rivulets on Kim's Mercedes, and there was a handful of makeup brushes on the passenger seat. She had been surprised her sister had actually continued to allow her to use her car, and hadn't revoked Kory's driving privileges during the fight.

That had happened before, leaving her with no way to attend Jade Nguyen's sweet seventeen bash (not the traditional 'sixteen' because Jade had ended up in the hospital during her sixteenth birthday due to Meningitis) until her knight in shining armor, the handsome Philip had come and offered to take her there instead.

Kory supposed that's where it had started, but nothing had been _properly_ set in stone until summer break. And then she'd been sucked into the whirlwind too far to escape, and decided that playing about would at least give her temporary happiness until everything crashed into a thousand pieces. For a while it had, but she'd had to ignore her sense of morality for one night and that was devastating.

Tapping her fingers against the dashboard, she started the engine and sighed softly.

* * *

Dick took a swig of his bottle of Coke, and then pulled a face when he realised it was warm. Apparently Wally hadn't been listening when he'd requested one from the fridge, and had instead grabbed one from the side. Which usually wouldn't matter much, except the taste of the sugar was beginning to become more noticeable and the lack of the bubbliness didn't help either.

Roy was sprawled against the couch, his fingers dangling over the edge, clutching a similar bottle. Hand swaying gently, he narrowly avoided spilling the remnants of his drink all over the white carpet. His hair was hidden by a trucker's hat, and Dick was left wondering what sort of statement his friend had been trying to achieve when he had chosen it.

"Who else are we waiting for?" Roy asked, propping himself up with his elbow.

Dick turned to Donna, who was currently darting in-and-out of the kitchenette, alternating between bringing glasses and the occasional snack. He had offered to help a few minutes ago, but she was as determined as she was pretty, and was happy doing it by herself. The dark-haired Greek girl looked up, and smiled.

"Only two more people," she answered, pouring a packet of potato chips into a bowl. The sound was surprisingly loud. "Kory and Vic."

Head snapping upwards before he could stop it, he blurted, " _Kory?"_

Roy sniggered. "Subtle, really," he congratulated, and Dick sent him a glare in response.

Donna was unperturbed. "Kory Anders," she said, and he almost dropped his drink. "We've been friends since we were nine."

She said it casually, as if it was a fact of the universe, and to her, it probably was. But it meant everything to him, knowing that even if he and Kory hadn't travelled in the same circles, they had only been one friend away. _Kory Anders_ , gorgeous Kory who was sweet, funny and a wonderful person. The girl he had been crushing on for a little under two months.

"Oh," he summed up, trying to rectify his mistake. Roy had a leer tattooed on his face, prepared for a few rounds of relentless teasing, ones that wouldn't disappear with Kory present. In fact, they would probably escalate into more obvious sexual innuendoes and side glances whenever she talked to him, and even outright hints which would make everything that little bit more uncomfortable.

Shuffling in his seat, his mind drifted back to the graffiti, and the few plans he had come up with. Finding proof would be harder than initially presumed, but if the situation arose, he had access to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated Wayne Enterprise employees who were gifted academically. The science team in particular, would definitely be able to confirm whether or not the chemicals in the lipstick and those of the one used on the walls, matched.

He still hadn't mentioned a single word of it to Kory, and he was slightly guilty of pushing her to the back of his list of priorities. It was definitely intentional, and it had been eating at him ever since he had made the initial discovery. There wasn't going to be any easy way to reveal the truth, but he was trying to figure out the least hurtful way of explaining it.

"…girlfriend?" Roy finished off, looking at Dick expectantly. From the expression on his face and the way his voice had raised at the end of the sentence, made it clear that he was asking him a question. The smirk showed it was aimed to get a rise out of the adopted son of Bruce Wayne. His frequent non-verbal exchanges with Wally only confirmed it.

Except Dick had no clue about the actual content itself, and had to feign mishearing. "Huh?" he asked, the sound coming from the back of his throat and sounding more frustrated than usual.

The older of the redheads – Roy – rolled his eyes and tutted disapprovingly. "I was asking you whether or not you were gonna get a drink for your girlfriend when she arrives."

Dick rolled his eyes and took a small sip of the bottle. The taste had become sicklier, and he winced in disgust. "Kory isn't my girlfriend," he argued.

Roy's smirk became infuriatingly deeper. "I never said anything about Kory." he pointed out, and Dick fought the urge to groan at his own stupidity. He'd fallen into the ever-so-obvious trap of revealing something he really hadn't wanted to reveal.

Sniggering in the corner, Dick fixated his next glare on Wally who was already on his second bottle of Coke.

" _Sure_ ," the speedster drawled, unconvinced. "You were holding hands under the table, a couple of days ago."

Scratching the back of his neck, he tried to keep his best poker face. But he could feel the tips of his ears heating up, his cheeks burning in shame. As soon as Roy pointed it out, both boys hollered like hyenas, their bodies convulsing with laugher. Dick continued to glare at them, but with red stained cheeks and widened eyes, the effectiveness of it all, faltered disappointingly.

Gar appeared in the doorway, with a tired Rachel beside him. There were dark circles underneath her eyes, and he made a mental note to ask her if everything was okay. He knew Rachel didn't like to discuss her emotions with everybody, preferring to hold it all inside instead, but recently she had started to become more open.

And he needed that, needed to make sure she was happy, because she was like his sister.

Frowning slightly, Gar asked, "what's so funny?"

Shooting Wally his most murderous look, Dick answered before anybody else could. " _Nothing_." he said with gritted teeth, putting as much emphasis on the word as he could. If all of his friends found out, he didn't think he would survive Donna's party, let alone look alone at Kory and try and hold a small conversation with her.

For a brief second Gar looked suspicious, and the knowing looks from Roy and Wally didn't help either. But then his face relaxed, and the conversation drifted to something different, allowing Dick to focus on something else. He could hear the tail-ends of sentences, feel the atmosphere, but the rest of it didn't really get processed in his mind.

He loved his friends, he really did, but his main concern was trying to stop Kitten from blackmailing him.

The doorbell rang, but Dick stayed in his place. He could tell from the exclamations from the other members of the group that it was Vic Stone. Apparently, from the brief snippets that were audible, Donna had met him at a music festival a couple of years ago, and they'd become good friends ever since. The dark-haired boy almost snorted at how everybody had managed to befriend mutual friends – the chances of that were miniscule.

He turned and greeted Vic, before making the mistake of taking another sip. Wally, Gar and Rachel had all gotten to know Vic better, since Dick had been spending more time with Kory up until a few weeks ago. It made everything that little twinge of more awkward then he would've liked. But Dick still gave a small fist bump and half-listened to the joke.

It was only after Kory had arrived, that Dick realised that he needed to pay attention to his friends. As threatening and as worrying as the Kitten situation was, constantly fretting about it made the whole afternoon less enjoyable. He had made up his mind, and as soon as he stood up, he locked eyes with the pretty redhead.

Kory was wearing a casual purple dress that ended just above her knees and elbows. Her hair was out, flowing freely like molten lava. Waving slightly, he was about to greet her until Donna struck a conversation with her and he turned his attention elsewhere. Roy was sending him suggestive look complete with waggling eyebrows, but Dick ignored it and moved towards Rachel instead.

"Hi." Her tone was subdued and he detected a hint of upset undertones.

"Hey," he responded back, "you okay?"

She nodded, but it wasn't convincing enough. Not with the way her eyelids drooped slightly, or the way she stumbled awkwardly, almost as if she was having trouble talking to him. He hoped this was a brief phase, this sudden nervousness she got around him, because he really didn't want it to ruin their friendship.

"I…" she paused, but he gave her a friendly smile of encouragement. "I want to talk to you about something." He motioned for her to start now, but Rachel shook her head. "Not now," she said, and the nervousness seemed to come back.

He wanted to continue the conversation, but Garth was being introduced to everybody. When Dick had been in middle school, he'd had his four closest friends with him. But then Garth, Roy and Donna had all gone to different high schools (the former two ending up at some private academy). Wally had stuck around, and then they had met and invited Gar and Rachel, lastly adding Kory and (he presumed) Vic.

The result was a lot of small bonds, where each person in the room was familiar with at least two others, bringing the grand total to a pleasant nine.

Garth's dark hair was slightly damp from his activities prior to the party – practicing for the state swim championships. He lived and breathed the world of water sports, having been taught it all by his Olympic-level uncle, Arthur. Shy and reserved, Garth wasn't the most outgoing, but he was definitely one of the most reliable friends Dick had ever had.

He also had a girlfriend, Tula. And that's why Dick was so confused when feelings of jealousy bubbled up as Kory giggled at some inaudible thing Garth had said, leaning into him. He'd never been particularly possessive around Babs, preferring to have a trusting foundation as a relationship. But there was something about the way Garth seemed to reciprocate her actions that made him want to punch a wall.

Wally suddenly appeared out of nowhere, holding another full drink bottle. Dick had counted three so far, and knew that any more would result in a hyper teenager. The boy rested his elbow against Dick's shoulders, using him to support his own weight. "Having fun?" he teased, sticking his tongue out.

Dick didn't even bother glaring. "I think you should stop drinking Coke," he said instead, changing the subject.

Pouting, Wally argued, "but they're like the best things ever! Dude, you should really learn to lighten up."

Donna was beckoning everyone towards her, and although Wally looked like he was starting to _really_ feel the effects of the sugar, he and Dick walked over. Dick still had his warm drink, but he placed in on the side, hoping that he'd never have to drink from it ever again. Kory was still talking to Garth, but Vic was there too, and the jealousy was beginning to dissipate.

From Rachel's disgusted expression, it was evident that Roy was intentionally winding her up: flirting and generally annoying her. He'd taken his cap off and dumped it on the table in the centre with all of the snacks on it. Gar was already by Donna, looking slightly concerned about something, but Dick assumed they were probably discussing the blond's crush on Rachel, since Donna was the unofficial confidant of their group.

Wally exclaimed, "we should totally open all of the presents now!" referring to the stack of gifts that was in the corner of the room.

Dick could spot his own: a digital photo frame wrapped in red wrapping paper. He knew Donna was a big fan of photography, and this allowed her to load her best photos onto a screen. He'd already saved some of their cringe-inducing middle school group shots on there (back when they had referred to their group as the 'fabulous five').

"We can do them later," Donna decided. "What do you want to do _now_ though? We can watch a movie or play some games or something?"

Roy suggested, "I've got some booze in the car, if anybody wants some," and Dick was glad when the birthday girl sent him a disapproving look. It was nice to know that Dick wasn't the only responsible one here.

Vic, surprisingly, agreed with Dick, but Wally and Gar were onboard with the idea. Rachel didn't look that bothered with the idea, which Roy immediately took as a small victory. Garth mumbled something about staying healthy for sport, Donna eventually didn't mind as much either, as long as they were safe and didn't get drunk (although Roy argued that the experienced was the best part). Dick had drunk alcohol before, but that was usually under Bruce's watch.

Nobody had bother to inquire where the cans of beer had come from, but he assumed it was probably one of the perks of Oliver Queen's irresponsible parenting. Bruce wasn't that much better, but at least Dick wasn't constantly partying, sleeping around or taking drugs (although Roy only did the first two).

Kory hadn't said much; instead she had stood by the side idly watching. He decided to approach her whilst Roy complained that the lack of alcohol equated to a dull party.

"Hey," he said, and it was lovely how much she perked up when she saw him.

"Hi," she greeted, a small smile playing on her soft features.

"Not interested in drinking?" Dick asked, trying to sound as inquisitive as possible. He knew the powers of peer pressure, and his aim wasn't to force her into doing anything she didn't want to.

She shook her head, curls flying everywhere. "I had a bad experience with underage drinking," Kory explained, pausing slightly as her face scrunched up. He reached to comfort her, but was interrupted by the announcement.

Wally finally shrugged. "We don't _have_ to drink, there are plenty of other things we can do. We should play Truth or Dare!" he suggested, taking another of Coke.

Dick rejected the idea immediately. "What are we? Middle schoolers?"

It was a stupid idea for several reasons: the questions were rubbish; the dares were even worse and his friends were only going to use this excuse as the beginning of their unending teasing. He wasn't stupid, and he wasn't going to fall into any more of their traps.

Gar shook his head, hands in his pockets. "We should watch a movie first and do the rest of the games later." There was a beat of silence as he stood, pensive, before announcing, "We should watch Star Wars!"

Kory crossed her arms. "I watched Star Wars yesterday. I'm not watching it again."

Roy nodded. "Yeah, guys we've seen it about a thousand times. We should watch something else, as long as it's not a chick flick."

Shuddering, Dick silently agreed. Babs hadn't even been particularly fond of chick flicks, and yet he had still found himself at the cinema twice, having a date that included a romantic comedy. They were cheesy, unrealistic, and often biased to the main couple's side of the story. For example, _The Wedding Planner_ , numerous characters were hurt just so that Mary and Steve could get together (and break off their prior relationships).

Donna bent over and opened a cabinet beside the television. She browsed through the cases, before pulling one out. "Easy A? It's quite funny."

The gorgeous girl beside him was already disagreeing. "No!" she blurted out, eyes wide, and when everybody turned to look at her, her cheeks flushed red. "It's not…very interesting?"

Although he'd never watched it, Babs had loved it and had provided him with a few details. A teenage girl getting slut-shamed by the rest of the school? It definitely hit home a little too close.

"Yeah," he agreed, and Kory sent him a grateful smile. "There are other better films out there."

Eventually they settled on the latest remake of the _Poltergeist_ , although Donna and Kory didn't seem so keen on the idea. The former's living room could fit all of them comfortably on the floor, and Gar passed everybody a cushion to make things seem more cozy. Switching off the lights, Dick had opted to sit on the left hand side of the screen, resting against the bottom of the sofa.

Kory joined him, and her knees brushed against his. He was thankful that the darkness allowed his red face to stay hidden. But then she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder and his fingers twitched. Her hair trailed down the side of his chest, stopping at the middle of his ribcage.

On the screen, the lights in the house began to blink rapidly, and Kory immediately stiffened. It was cute how she was scared. Her eyes fluttered shut, opened at the wrong time and she squealed in fright. His fingers crawled against the surface onto the carpet until they linked with hers. Everything she did, from the way she breathed to the way her hair smelt, was extremely distracting and he gave up any hope of trying to follow the movie.

His hormones were becoming a little intense, so he counted the number of stripes on Vic's shirt and then recited the first twenty elements of the periodic table. He went through all of the square numbers up to 35, found the sum of the number of times that paranormal activity happened or when there was a false scare.

The film was coming to a close and although he was slightly disappointed, there was a small surge of relief that existed. The lights switched on, and Roy immediately made eye contact with Dick, smirking slightly and pointing out the slightly compromising position Dick currently was in. He immediately let go of Kory's hand, but he was far too comfortable to move her completely. Unfortunately, she sat up on her own, and there was a cool spot on his shoulder that missed her head.

"How'd ya guys find the film?" Vic asked.

"It was one of the worst horror films I've ever seen," Gar stated, and the others nodded in agreement. "The original was much better!"

Vic continued, "Some things seemed a little pointless. Plus, the number of times somebody went into the alternate dimension started gettin' a little ridiculous!"

Gar crossed his arms, and Dick had never realised how much the pair had become good friends. Earlier they'd been discussing video games (apparently Vic was really into them, just like the blond boy) and although they were the complete opposites academically, they seemed to fit nicely. It was a shame it had taken them so long to become good friends, but Kory was the catalyst and she hadn't appeared in their lives until the beginning of this school year.

The boy complained, "it wasn't even scary! Wicked Scary 5 was scarier than that, and they had one scene about a dancing bear!"

Laughing, Roy took the moment of silence to intervene. "I don't know," he said, refusing to break eye contact with Dick, "there were a _few_ of us who found it scary."

If Kory was ashamed, it hadn't registered on her face. She giggled slightly, rosy-faced. "Horror movies are not really my favourite," she admitted.

It looked like Roy was going to continue, and Dick would prefer it if he didn't reveal it to the whole group. There wasn't exactly anything wrong with what they were doing, except for the fact that it wasn't exactly an action that two friends did, and was more suited for couples.

"What are we doing next?" He interrupted the flow of the conversation, and then gave an innocent (albeit enthusiastic) grin.

Looking at Donna, who shrugged with a simple "I don't mind, it's your choice," he waited for somebody else to intercept the discussion with another idea.

To his utter disappointment, there was a unanimous decision to continue with Truth or Dare. Roy, still reeling from his failure at teasing, made them sit in a circle and they used one of Wally's empty bottles (which was in a worryingly growing pile on the side). Everybody was given two passes, and if a dare or question was deemed too unfair by the rest of the group, then it would be replaced by something a little tamer. The person opposite the victim would ask the inevitable question and assign the question or dare.

He didn't move much from his place, apart from shuffling slightly to the left to accommodate the circle. Kory was on his right-side, and Garth was on his left, both sitting cross-legged. Kory's dress had hiked up a bit, exposing a lot of tanned leg and he really tried not to glance at it.

"Okay," Roy announced, "Donna's spinning first since it's her birthday. Whoever the bottle lands on next will be the first person."

Kory watched with mild interest as the bottle spun around until the neck of it faced Garth. He didn't say anything, but looked expectantly at Donna who asked him the question. She liked Garth; although she'd had swimming lessons when she was younger, she'd never really fully understood the appeal of competitive swimming until he had explained it to her. It was refreshing from the quiet mumbles of her own high school, ones that didn't really want to be caught talking to her.

Dick was next to her, and she could tell from the way his blue eyes remained unfocused, that was he wasn't paying attention. He'd been pushing her away recently, letting the conversation die before it had properly flourished, creating excuses instead of usually walking to class with her. For a fleeting second Kory had believed he'd found out the truth, found out what sort of person she truly was.

Garth had chosen truth, and Donna's question was, "Have you ever been in a fight?"

His answer had been a negative, and then it was his turn to spin. It landed on Gar this time, and he was dared to lick the floor. He was repulsed by the idea but everybody knew that the dares would eventually get worse and it would probably be a bad idea to use up his passes so quickly.

Then it was Roy, whose answers always ended slightly sexual, which was a little odd. He kept passing odd looks to Dick, ones that sometimes involved a quick glance at her. Instead of trying to figure them out, she just smiled sweetly at him and prayed that there wasn't anything wrong.

It was Gar again, then Vic.

When it had landed on Rachel, she chose Truth. Donna was the invigilator, and her questions were usually innocent. The dark-haired girl finished tying up her ponytail, and bit her lip.

"Um…" she stalled, trying to figure out a question. It hadn't been Kory's turn to create any dares yet, and she was thankful for that. Her mind was unusually conflicted today, confused about Kim's behaviour.

Donna finally chose a question. "Do you have a crush on anybody?"

The redhead hadn't meant to notice it. But her eyes had caught the way Rachel's gaze had temporarily flickered towards Dick, before a blush had graced her cheeks.

"I might," Rachel murmured, and there was an indescribable feeling in Kory's chest. Her whole body tightened slightly; a large lump formed in her throat and made it impossible to swallow. Of course Rachel liked Dick. Kory understood that perfectly. He was handsome, charismatic, and made her heart beat in a way she had never felt before.

But it also meant a hundred of other things. A hundred of other things that included Dick reciprocating these feelings for Rachel. She was being selfish, she supposed. Contrary to popular belief, Kory Anders was not ready for another relationship. The last one had ended horribly (although it had started horribly, too). She had hurt so many people, and done something she had regretted ever since; she'd gone all the way with a college boy.

It was Dick's turn, and Kory hadn't been paying attention until she heard her name being used in the sentence. "Huh?" Her head snapped up as she tried to figure out what was being said.

Roy rolled his eyes. "Dick's dare is to kiss the person on his right, which happens to be _you_ , Kory."

Her eyes widened, lips parting. The words had died in her throat, and she faltered for a response, for _anything_ to come out of her mouth. Her face felt like it was burning, and her entire being froze, unsure of what to do.

Of course she'd dreamt about kissing Dick. But the setting had always been romantic – on a balcony, or a pretty garden or in the restaurant of their first date. As much as she would love to feel his soft lips against hers, the idea of their first kiss being in front of his friends bordered on humiliation. Kory could feel the warning signs of tears: the way her breath stiffened, how everything suddenly felt glassy.

She couldn't even look at him properly. What if didn't want to kiss her? Not just in this scenario, but ever? The redhead was currently happy and content without knowing his response to whether or not he was interested in kissing her. If he used one of his passes, she didn't think she would be able to talk to him ever again, let alone stop the tears.

Finally, Dick nodded. "Okay," he said, and she forced herself to relax. Her shoulder's dropped slightly, and her toes unclenched from inside of her shoes.

He moved closer, and she could smell the cologne he used. Everything was becoming infuriatingly dizzy, and she struggled to keep her solid grasp on reality.

And then his lips brushed against her cheek, and her whole resolve melted away. Kory had never been so conflicted before – their first kiss hadn't been ruined, but that probably meant he wasn't interested in her either. Which was equally as conflicting, because she desperately wanted to have a relationship with him, but everything had failed so spectacularly before.

Roy's eyebrows raised as Dick pointed out, "you didn't tell me where I had to kiss her," and she guessed he was right.

The bottle spun around a few times, and one of her dares was to flash one of the neighborhood kids. She'd used her pass on that, and when Wally had pouted playfully, Dick had gotten really pissed at him. It had been a joke of course, but there was something extremely sexy about the way he had defended her. It had only increased her attraction towards him.

A few more rounds passed, and then it was her turn once more. Rachel was the one asking the question this time, after Kory had safely chosen 'truth.' The girl's expression hadn't changed as she asked, "What's the worse thing you've done?"

The answer was like clockwork. "I kissed somebody's boyfriend at a party once," she said, refusing to meet the eyes of anybody in the room. Her hand pressed against the floor and her fingers dug deeper into the carpet, squeezing the strands.

"Drunk or sober?" Donna asked, and Kory knew it was the first time her friend had ever heard about this.

"Sober," she replied, fixating on the wooden chair leg a couple of feet away from her. Could they tell that she was lying? That her sentence was a gross understatement, with not one single piece of factual information?

'Kissed' meant laying as he moved further inside her, her hands clenched by her sides. 'Sober' meant numerous beers. And 'somebody' hadn't been a stranger, or an unintentional recipient. It had been her sister's boyfriend, the charming and utterly gorgeous Philip Karras.


	17. seventeen

_Author's Note: um hi? Val here, with another update!  
_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Seventeen: She Was Practically Snuggling Into Him**_

* * *

"Hey Dick?" Tim asked, standing in the doorway. He leant against the doorframe, with a sheepish smile, scratching the side of his arm. "How do I get to the study again?" He'd only been living in this house for the past three weeks, and since a large majority of that time had been spent at school, it made sense that he wasn't entirely sure of where each room was.

Biting back a smirk, Dick stood up from his desk. It was easy to get lost between the decadent hallways. There were three floors altogether with over fifty rooms including a gym, indoor (and outdoor) pool and three games rooms. He remembered what it was like for a lonely eight-year-old, wandering around lost. Although he'd had access to a lot of facilities that most people would kill for, the loneliness had often kicked in.

"I'll take you," he said, dropping the pen from his hand.

Tim laughed nervously, running a hand through his dark hair as he did so. He was a quiet kid, pretty polite and shy – the complete opposite of Jason. He'd been enrolled into Brookford Academy since August, and although Bruce had still been going through the arduous process of adoption at that time, he had still been paying for Tim's tuition.

At least Dick had been given a choice whether or not he wanted to attend a private school – Tim had been forced.

They walked through the Family Wing, with Dick taking the lead and Tim traipsing only a few inches behind. The latter stayed quiet, and Dick felt no need to start a conversation. He thrust his hands in his pockets and occasionally glanced at the portraits hanging on the wall. Most of them depicted previous members of the Wayne Family, although there was one with a small Bruce.

"So, uh, your girlfriend, Kory, is coming later on today, right?" Tim asked, and Dick turned around to look at him.

"Yeah," he nodded, not catching the title used. "Why?"

The younger boy's cheeks reddened slightly. "She's cool."

Biting back the urge to smirk, Dick decreased his pace so that he was in-line with the dark-haired boy. Silence seeped in once more, until Tim cleared his throat, taking his hands out of his pockets. "She likes you, y'know."

Dick raised an eyebrow, finding his brother's sudden interest in Kory extremely amusing. Tim had met her twice, and on both times he hadn't said much except for a couple of sentences and a small wave. He wasn't sure if that was due to Kory's appearance, or Tim himself. Both were equally as interesting, although the first one gave him more teasing leverage.

"I'm not sure if I should be taking romantic advice from a freshman who can't even talk to girls," Dick poked fun at him. "What was the name of the blonde girl you were video-chatting with a couple of days ago? Stella?"

Cheeks burning scarlet, Tim looked down. "Her name is Steph," he mumbled. "She's in my Spanish class."

There was a momentary lapse in the conversation as they descended down the stairs, passing the foyer. He yawned a little – a result of the never-ending stream of homework that had gushed his way. It was mainly due to Mr Light's intense hatred for anything remotely related to Algebra, meaning that the contents of the class overflowed into the homework. And doing four pages of algebraic equations was the equivalent of attending another one of Bruce's cocktail party's – tedious and unbelievably mind-numbing.

"Steph, huh?" Dick lightly teased, and although it seemed impossible, Tim only reddened.

They turned the corner, the younger of the two slumping his shoulders in defeat. "She's probably the only girl who isn't friends with me just because I'm Bruce Wayne's son. Everybody else is more interested in the Wayne fortune."

Nodding sympathetically, Dick understood the situation immediately. He had intentionally kept a low profile at the beginning of freshman year so that he was able to start securing friendships without dealing with people who were more attracted to his money than his actual personality. It had failed eventually, but by then he had at least secured a friendship (albeit small) with Rachel and Gar.

"Yeah," he said, shifting his weight between his two feet, as they reached the study door. "You'll get that a lot. But people will calm down by the end of the year."

Tim inclined his head, and grinned. "Thanks," he said, motioning to the door.

Dick nodded, and made his way back to his room. His work lay untouched on his desk, scattered about messily. He'd knocked over his pencil case earlier, and a couple of the pens had rolled onto the ground. Picking them up, he settled into his seat and tried to work on the remainder of his homework. It took longer than normal, and he found himself day-dreaming once or twice (which _really_ wasn't a good sign).

Kory arrived fourty minutes later, doe-eyed and yawning quietly. Her hair was out, and although he liked her typical bouncy ponytails that she usually had for school, his favourite was when the curls tumbled over her shoulder like a series of cascades. She'd brought some of her work too, kinda like a study date, but without that level of intimacy.

Within the first ten minutes, it had become obvious that something was wrong. She'd been stealing glances at him, staying unnaturally quiet, fingers squirming in her lap. It was extremely distracting for both of them, especially since he couldn't help but notice that she'd only written one word on an otherwise blank sheet.

"Kor?" he asked, and her head snapped up, embarrassed. "Are you okay?"

The redhead flushed. "I am fine, thank you." It was said a little haughtily, only adding to his confusion.

"You sure?" he questioned, studying her carefully. Kory had been playing with the hem of her skirt, and the string had unraveled long enough to brush her calf. There was a missing button on the top of her shirt, and she was placed on the edge of her chair as opposed to actually sitting on it. Even the world's greatest detective (which in Dick's mind was Sherlock Holmes) could figure that something was wrong.

"Yes," she insisted, before leaning against him, tiredly. "X'hal, I'm so _sick_ of World History! Mr Mod has set us two essay due in on Tuesday and I haven't even finished the first!" Kory complained, and her head settled on the spot that was in the crook between his neck and his shoulder: on the boundary of his clavicle.

Admiring the curl of her eyelashes, he realised she was expecting a reply. "Yeah," he responded, "he's been finalizing the last stages of his divorce and has been taking it out on all of his students. We got one essay to do last Wednesday, except it was due in the day after." His essay had come back drenched in red pen, because apparently his tone had been 'too informal' (even though it was the exact same tone he had used in every single one of his other essays that had received A+ grades).

She was practically snuggling into him now, reminiscent of a cat. Dick's fingers clutched the pen tightly, trying to finish off the sentence. He'd lost his trail of thought minutes ago, and was now struggling to describe how political and social leaders helped to transform American economically during the nineteenth century.

"Um," he stuttered, changing the subject and trying not to make it sound like he was asking her out on a date (even though he was ninety-percent sure he was). "There's a new café that opened out near Brookford Central Park. We could go visit it next Saturday, just me and you."

Kory immediately stiffened, and he knew he had done something wrong. He faltered for a moment, trying to find a way to salvage the situation.

"Rachel!" she suddenly blurted out, causing any type of thought in his mind to evaporate.

"Huh?" Dick asked, gently moving away from her. Her head lolled off the corner of his shoulder before the hint became evident. She sat up, cheeks mirroring the colour of her hair.

"I mean," she paused, scrambling for words, "we could invite Rachel! And Gar, and Wally..."

The rejection stung, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it. "Yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck, ashamed. "That sounds like a cool idea."

Silence filled in, only emphasising the awkwardness. He couldn't even keep eye contact with her, and instead threw his entire being into finishing his pile of homework. After a few minutes, he could sense a little bit of movement from her side too, and his muscles relaxed a little. It didn't take long for him to slip into old habits, and the dark-haired boy replayed the conversation in his head. Her insistence and sudden eagerness to involve Rachel was slightly disconcerting.

Out of the corner of his eye, the heir of Wayne Enterprises watched as she tapped her fingers against the surface of the table. Kory's chin was pressing into her hand, propped up by her elbow. Her eyes were half-lidded; she wasn't paying attention to the textbook sitting in front of her. Biting back the urge to tug her back into her original position curled against him, he quickly looked away.

His essay ended up in bits-and-pieces of fragmented sentences and general notes. Resolving to finish it on a later date, he moved to the next class, stealing a glance at the redhead beside him. Eventually he bit the bullet.

"If you follow the example of the second question, then you should get the answer," he explained, softening at the way her lips parted into a look of understanding.

She smiled, hands brushing against his. "Thank you."

He tried to ignore the rushing in his head, and moved his attention elsewhere. The clock on the wall read twenty-minutes until lunch, and he was planning to make sure Kory would stay that long. He loved spending time with her regardless of the undefinable nature of their relationship. They were constantly slipping over the edge of friendship and a romantic relationship, but her last comment sounded like she preferred the former.

Which made it all the more confusing when her arm kept brushing against his. Especially since she tended to stay sitting close to him (not that he minded) even though there was plenty of space on the desk (it was large enough to house three people). He wished they could define their relationship a bit more clearly, but the thought simultaneously worried him.

When they had moved onto their English project, she had perked up a little more. The project itself was the main reason she was there (although he guessed he would've found some way to invite her to his house). It was a partner-project, allowing them to finish the last remnants of their book before they began another project.

They had to present the main themes found in the book, using (but not limited to) art, film, or speech. It wasn't due in for a couple of weeks, but Dick believed that dividing up the work into equal sections would be better than trying to create it the day before. Kory seemed pleasantly onboard with any idea he had (which was a huge relief).

"So we've already written down the main points and the evidence that supports them," Dick started, collecting his thoughts, "I think all we need to do is sort out which parts we're analyzing."

She agreed with an understanding "okay," and they began the arduous process of examining specific phrases and ideas to convey their message. The redhead was fairly responsive, choosing to note down in shorthand, contrasting against his long, precise notes. His handwriting became a little messier as they discussed more, and there were a few times when she couldn't properly read it.

After a couple of minutes had passed, Kory rested her head on her hands, red hair spilling onto his notebook. Although she had done a fairly good job of pretending for a while, Dick knew that she was upset about something. He considered asking her once more, but decided against it, and instead wrapped his fingers around hers.

She moved closer, lifting her head. They were an inch apart, and he could feel her green eyes piercing into his own. Her lips were so close to his; he felt her warm breath against his cheeks, clashing against the cool air of the room. Her eyes were fluttering, and he instinctively moved closer, ready to kiss her if the situation arose.

There was a knock against the open door, and the pair immediately split away from one another. It was Alfred, wearing one of his annoyingly suggestive looks; ones that were usually reserved for Bruce whenever he was around Selina, or for when Dick had brought Babs to his room for the first time.

Clearing his throat politely, Alfred informed them that lunch was ready. He had made it very clear that he was fond of Kory, which was a relief since Bruce didn't like her for some odd reason. Dick guessed it had something to do with the party (although Bruce might have made the connection between Ryan and Dick's fight and subsequent weeks of detention).

"It's fine Alfred," Kory began, "I should probably be leaving now, anyway. I've got to finish a lot my work."

"Nonsense Miss Anders!" Alfred said, an inch of sternness in his voice. "I've already set out your place on the table."

Blushing, Kory followed Dick to the dining room. He hadn't had the courage to start a conversation – the miserable attempt of a kiss still hung fresh in his mind. Instead, he admired the wooden paneling of the walls and pretended that the plant in the corner was the most wonderful thing in the room.

Her seat just _had_ to be next to his (although that was more of Alfred's fault than hers).

Tim arrived a couple of seconds later, ink staining the edges of his fingers. He stole a couple of appreciative glances at Kory, bordering on unsubtle, before stammering out, "hi Kory!"

Of course she shot him a gorgeous smile. That wasn't exactly Kory's fault that her smiles were like that, Dick reasoned mentally, but it made everything that little bit more frustrating. He was on the fringes of screaming – possibly stabbing the table with his knife – and everything that Kory did wasn't helpful.

"How's school?" the redhead asked Tim, slipping a piece of pasta into her mouth.

"It's alright," Tim reasoned, "but it's kind of stressful being treated like kids again."

Taking a small, dainty sip at her glass of water, Kory replied, "Ryan has that same problem. He does not like how the teachers act as if he's seven instead of fourteen."

"Mr Light's the worse though," Dick added in, and she giggled quietly in acknowledgement. "In the first class we had with him, he went around checking our work, making sure that everything was perfect. If it wasn't, he threatened to rip out your page of notes and make you start again."

Rolling her eyes playfully, Kory argued, "he was not _that_ bad."

He couldn't help flirting with her. "That's because he likes you. If you're not one of the lucky few," he teased, watching as she scowled at him good-naturedly, "then it's torture. He still acts like I'm five, instead of seventeen."

She laughed again, and he joined in, letting any exasperation melt away with each sound that came out of her mouth. It was infectious, her bubbliness. It made everything better, from the décor of the room to the creamy tomato sauce in his pasta. He'd been stressed for a while, trying to balance everything perfectly, but being with her made him lose all of his previous inhibitions.

"It isn't his fault you act like a five-year-old," she pointed out, and Tim oohed at the level of sassiness emitting from her arched eyebrow. Dick copied her position, crossing his arms indignantly.

"Really?" he challenged, as she giggled behind her hand. Kory hummed in affirmation, causing him to lean back in his chair dramatically.

"I can't believe this! Attacked in my own home!" Dick proclaimed, sounding eerily similar to a soap-opera star. He put a hand to his chest, almost as if he had been physically wounded by her words. Tim was laughing openly now, his fork slipping into the orange-red sauce, having been resting on the side of his plate.

Finishing the remained of his pasta, Dick grinned when Alfred appeared in the dining room doorway moments later. The corners of the butler's eyes were crinkled in delight.

Kory thanked him warmly. "The meal was delicious Alfred," she beamed.

Tim was nodding in agreement, having fished out his fork only a few minutes ago. "Yeah. It was great! Thanks Alfred."

Echoing the previous statements, Dick helped to put the plates away. Alfred tried to shoo him away, but he gave him a lazy grin and ignored the older man. He didn't mind assisting their butler; it wasn't fair that Alfred had to do _everything_ by himself. Kory and Tim offered too, but Dick brushed off their suggestions.

When he was done, she linked her arm with his. It was akin to a cuddle whilst walking. The bottom of her shirt had bunched up at the end, emphasising her breasts; it was becoming alarmingly distracting for his teenage hormones. He had to force himself to swallow and focus on the hallway in front of them instead.

She was quiet for a while, before her voice finally broke the silence. The redhead sounded extremely nervous – he could tell by the way she clutched harder against his arm (on the brink of cutting of the circulation) and the way her voice slightly quivered at the end of the question. "Have you found anything more?" she asked, and then added, "about the culprit, I mean."

Delaying the inevitable would only worsen the situation, and Dick knew that he had to come clean to her. She was extremely calm right now, and it would be easier for her to express how she felt, instead of being forced to keep a strong image up that would be needed during her time at school. Now, also gave her enough time to process it over the weekend.

"Uh, yeah…" he admitted. "Um," he hesitated, trying to find the least-damaging way to explain it. "Amber's lipstick colour was a match. I didn't get any answers from her though, since Kitten appeared only a few seconds later."

Her response was a flat, "oh."

"I've checked all of the other leads and none of them have any proper connections," he continued before sighing audibly. "She didn't do it alone."

Dick debated explaining further, but Kory's arm dropped from his and immediately fell to her side. She'd become unnaturally quiet, her pace slowing down so that she was seconds from trailing behind him. Her eyes were on the ground, lips parted in hurt. It was obvious that the truth stung.

"Kor?" he called out. "Are you –"

"I am fine," she interrupted, too insistently to be true. Her tone was bouncing around, fingers shaking. "It is just…Kitten would not do that. I have been her best friend since I was _twelve_!" she was sounding frantic, beginning to pace back-and-forth. "Why would she–"

She choked back a sob, and his arm was immediately around her, pulling her close. Another sob escaped from her lips, but it was more muffled, and it sounded like she was trying to reign it in before it could get worse. He stayed silent for a few seconds, focusing on holding her as tightly as possible. It didn't matter that they were standing in a hallway.

"Hey," he said softly, and repeated it again to make sure she was listening. "We're gonna sort things out, I promise. It's going to be okay." She hugged him before furiously wiping at her eyes with her arm.

Nodding, Kory stayed in his grasp for a few minutes, until she finally let go. Her arm stayed pressed against his, eventually moving so that her hand slipped into Dick's hands and he squeezed it reassuringly. Adjusting his position so that he wasn't so close to her, they finished the journey to his room, fingers interlocked.

The redhead grabbed all of her books and her white tote bag, neatly tucking the items away. Dick stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to say. He decided to clean up his mess of items too, stashing them away in the nearest drawer. Naturally, she finished before him, and waited patiently for him.

"I should probably go now," she said, and he could see the remainders of tears that had pooled on the edge of her eyelashes.

He nodded, clearing his throat. "Yeah," he agreed, ignoring the disappointment that stabbed in his chest. "I'll walk you out?"

The corners of her lips quirked upwards, and he couldn't help mirroring the action. Their pace stayed leisurely, as they escaped into the front gardens of Wayne Manor. The setup was like every other mansion, with a little stone fountain at the front, a large white graveled area that encircled it, and two paths that led to-and-from the gates.

Kory's car (or more specifically, her sister's car) was parked beside the fountain. It was inches away from the well-groomed lawns, and she leant on the driver's car door whilst she talked to him.

"I'll call you later, then?" she asked hopefully, and both of her hands held his. They swung gently, as a warm breeze picked up and rustled the leaves on the trees. The sun came down in rivulets, illuminating her face and making her green eyes look even more gorgeous.

"Yeah," he agreed. There was a lull in the conversation before he stepped closer and gave her an encouraging grin. "We're gonna sort everything out."

"I know," Kory smiled prettily. "Everything will be okay," she echoed.

It was becoming too much: the way the sunlight made her hair look like it was on fire; the way her smile dazzled; the warmness of her hands. Dick's hormones were on full-drive, and his fingers itched to run his hands through her hair. He couldn't help himself – Kory Anders was absolutely gorgeous, and the way she was looking at him only made him want her more.

There was a stray piece of hair brushing against her cheek, and he instinctively tucked it behind her ear. The action was intimate, totally inappropriate for the occasion, but he didn't care any more. Her eyes widened, lips irresistibly opening in surprise.

And then Dick Grayson did the single most stupid (and reckless) thing he had ever done that year.

He tugged her closer, cupped her cheek and kissed her.


	18. eighteen

_Author's Note: Happy Monday! (I'm so proud of myself for actually writing this on time lol) :D_

 _Somebody did ask me about this, so here is some clarification: my Kory is a mixture of comics-verse Kory and cartoon-verse. Although I tend to lean towards the former, some of the traits from the cartoon verse have been incorporated (such as her insecurity - since this trait was made exclusively for her cartoon counterpart). In terms of vengefulness and apologies - I'm going with comics Kory, who will forgive her friends, but does hold grudges against those who have hurt her. (this is most evident with Kitten)._

 _Anyway, you guys have waited patiently for this moment, so here it is. A long chapter because a) you deserve it for being so patient and b) the last one was short :)_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Eighteen: Like An Unstable Railway Train About To Veer Off The Tracks**_

* * *

Almost melting into his kiss, Kory leant against the side of the car to steady herself. His fingers were tangled in her hair, pulling softly at the stray strands as he kissed her. She tried to ignore the pounding of her heart in her ears. Hands resting against his shoulders, she moved closer, almost curling into his body.

His lips were soft – far softer than she had ever imagined – and they parted slightly, deepening the kiss. She understood what was going to happen, and pulled away. The cool air greeted her face and she missed the warmth of his lips pressed against her. There weren't any audible sounds except for her erratic heartbeat, running loudly like an unstable railway train about to veer off the tracks.

Dick's hands dropped to his side, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. There was a red blush settling on his cheeks, and the tips of his ears were bright pink. Silence filled in the empty void, whilst the pair stood there, frozen.

Eventually, the sounds made their way to the tip of her tongue. "Um," she faltered, blood rushing to her head. "I…"

He was staring at her, holding a similar, confused expression. The breeze was beginning to pick up, and wisps of hair whipped against her bare arms. Gripping at the locked car door, her stomach churned, and her knees weakened. She wanted to react – try and explain the thousands of emotions building up inside her, but instead she was stuck gaping at him.

"Fuck!" Dick swore, immediately stepping away from her. She withered away at the explosiveness of the word, eyes darting around nervously. "I'm so sorry, Kor," he began, sounding slightly helpless, "I didn't mean…"

It was enough motivation for her, and her hands rattled the handle of the door, before realizing that the car keys were in her purse. "I should go," she informed him, digging through her bag.

The boy visibly winced, and her whole body cringed internally. His hands thrust into his pockets, and he looked uncomfortable with the situation, lips curled downwards, head facing the ground. Dick ran a hand through his dark hair, and she wished that her mind would stop focusing on how gorgeous he looked and instead turn to the more pressing matters at hand.

"I'm sorry, Kory, I shouldn't have –"

Words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them, Kory ordered, "don't apologise!" to him. His pacing decreased, and she swallowed. "It was," the redhead searched for the most appropriate word, whilst thousands ran through her mind, before settling on the least exciting one. "…nice."

He held a skeptical expression, one eyebrow raised. She used his unyielding silence to explain her line of thinking better, fingers finally clutching at the silvery car keys. "I liked it," she told him softly before her tone became normal, "and I think we should talk about it. I need to go though."

" _Kor,_ I'm so –" he began, but she cut him off before anything else could be said.

"I need a little bit of space right now, Dick," she insisted, grimacing at the sharpness of her tone. "I promise we will talk."

It was immature of her, running off as soon as the problems became to unravel. But her head was still slightly dizzy, and she needed somewhere to collect her thoughts. X'hal he had kissed her, and it had made her feel like a giddy twelve-year-old! It had been something she'd wanted for a couple of weeks, but his surprising boldness had caught her off guard and the guilt was running through her veins once more.

Before she could even entertain the idea of dating him, she would have to explain how easily everything had fallen apart last time. She'd slept with Philip, even though she hadn't been ready. Dick was understanding – he wouldn't ever try to do something like that to her when they got together, Kory was _sure_ of it – but it was finding the courage to explain it to him that was actually worrying her.

She wanted to reveal it to him, there and then, explain all of her current inhibitions. Not just because of her concern about the relationship, but because she was sick of keeping it to herself and she needed someone to confide it, to help lessen the burden. But the words were jammed in her throat, along with a large lump. It was incredibly frustrating.

The dark-haired teenager beside her nodded, and the tightness in her chest loosened a little. "Okay," he replied in agreement, looking a little less worried. "Um, I guess then I'll see you on Monday?" he ended it with a question, and it was impossible not to smile at how cute he looked.

The situation was horribly anticlimactic, but her life wasn't a storybook.

"Of course," she nodded in response, feeling more relaxed. She had finally managed to successfully open the car door, and slowly climbed onto the driver's seat, stealing a small glance out of the window when she was done. Dick gave her a small wave, scratching the back of his neck, as the engine switched on.

The weekend passed excruciatingly slowly, but Dick stayed true to his word. She received no texts or calls from him, further reminding her how much impact he had on her current life. It didn't help that half of the actions she committed brought his name to mind, or that if she daydreamed a little too much she ended up reminiscing about their kiss.

Donna was the first person she called, and the details had spilled out during the first five seconds of their conversation. Nobody, including the Greek girl, knew anything about Kory's rendezvous, limiting a lot of the reasons about why the redhead was concerned. Donna supported the relationship though and teased her endlessly.

The next three days at school each slammed into her sharply, leaving everything in awkward pieces. Dick seemed torn between talking to her and letting her be. She sat with him during class but their closeness had evaporated. He offered her cute smiles and friendly words but all she wanted to do was have him kiss her senselessly against the locker doors.

"…Kory?" he asked, before laughing quietly. He nudged her softly, calling out quietly, "earth to Kory!"

She blushed, embarrassed, looking up at him. They were sitting in the cafeteria, and he felt much further away than he usually was. The rest of the table were all staring at her, with various degrees of amusement. Tugging at the bottom of her skirt, she tried to calm herself, giving a nervous smile in return.

He was beginning to intrude in all of her thoughts, and it was the most irritating experience she had ever encountered. She'd been thinking about the mess of her lunch, and somehow it had turned into a list of the fifty reasons why they should date. As soon as he had spoken, there had been a brief terrifying moment where she'd thought she'd spoken her thoughts aloud, available to the rest of the table (which was extremely scary because number three was basically about how sexy she found him).

"Yes?" she asked, biting her lip. Sitting in front of her was her untouched meal of (what she presumed to be) a hamburger and mashed potato. There was a little portion of her plate for peas, except they had all mushed together to form a green paste. She nibbled on the bread roll part of her meal, eating the sesame seed top.

Dick grinned at her. "I was just asking whether or not you wanted a tomato. Gar has another sachet of mustard, y'know," he teased. Her response was the eloquent action of sticking out her tongue at him and scowling playfully. He mirrored the expression and passed her a cherry tomato, which she gratefully accepted.

Although she offered him (quite teasingly) a spoonful of her green mush, he declined. Without even thinking, whilst listening to Wally's laments about his problems choosing between Artemis and Jenny (he was apparently "torn" even though they had established weeks ago that it was best to try things out with Artemis), she automatically rested her head on his shoulder. She couldn't really describe the process behind it, but it was a really comfortable spot and it was always warm.

He seemed to stiffen underneath her, and she drew back. "Sorry," she mumbled amidst the conversation, aware of the situation. Right now, she was the only thing limiting their relationship, and continuing actions like this, whilst simultaneously requesting space was hurtful and unfair to both of them.

"No," he whispered back, sounding less tense than Kory had imagined he would be. "It's fine," he paused, "don't worry." Even though he had claimed he hadn't minded, she didn't do it again, trying to be more considerate of his feelings.

The conversation continued, with Rachel scolding Gar about something related to intelligence, and his flirty response only aggravating her further. Kory hid a smile at their interactions. It was extremely obvious Gar liked Rachel. What she wasn't sure of, was Rachel's feelings towards Gar.

That brought another problem to mind, Rachel's crush on Dick. Kory was ninety percent sure that the girl had a crush on him, and all of the previous interactions she had witnessed between them had made it very clear. The hurt flashing on her face when Kory had taken her place beside Dick; the way she had watched Dick's fight with Sawyer in the cafeteria; the number of times she'd acted shyly around him. Dick seemed oblivious and it was apparent that his detective skills were a moot point when it came to things actually concerning himself.

Her mind drifted back to the kiss, and she took a small sip of her bottled water, trying to clear her head.

Their lunch session finally ended, and she found an excuse to disappear to the library before the bell had rung. Kory was becoming more pathetic – no matter how hard she tried to sugarcoat her actions, it was obvious that she was intentionally beginning to push him away. It wasn't his fault that she was confused and yet he was forced to take the brunt of her actions.

Walking briskly, Kory almost ran into Kitten. The latter greeted her with a sneer, but the redhead only rolled her eyes. Kitten wasn't anybody important to her – her best friend had picked her path when she'd chosen to write numerous lies and rumors about her. Even if she dropped everything to apologise, Kory wasn't sure that she would be able to forgive her.

Kitten had been responsible for the graffiti. The messages that had led to the bullying and the awful words that had torn at her self-confidence. There had been a couple of days where she had considered skipping lunch altogether, because she had been so depressed and lonely, before Dick and her had become proper friends.

"Having fun, _slut_?" Kitten asked, crossing her arms. It was amazing how cheerful she sounded, like she didn't believe that slut-shaming a person was a bad thing.

Kory ignored her completely, pushing her retort to the back of her mind. She wasn't going to fall for her insults – she wasn't going to let her own temper flare up and ruin everything.

Kitten suddenly gripped her wrist, nails digging into the bare flesh. Surveying the empty hallway before pressing harder, the blonde hissed, "I know what you did."

The accusation didn't leave much room for imagination, and Kory froze, fingers still clasping at the pale fingers that were currently embedded into her arm. She forced herself to take a breath and gritted her teeth silently.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she replied, voice steady.

A laugh, short and sharp. It was something reminiscent of a villainess in a movie, making Kory's stomach churn. This was supposed to be her best friend, one who'd traded hair bobbles and shopping trips in return for secrets and parties. They'd crushed on senior boys, giggled about the poorly-made mannequins in shop windows and eaten gelato from quaint ice-cream bars.

"I know what you did," Kitten echoed, and then elaborated, lips turning into a knowing grimace, "I know all about your _college_ boy during the summer, and whose boyfriend he is. I know that you slept with my boyfriend when I went to Monte Carlo for vacation, and I also know that you're lying to everybody about both of these things."

It was relief knowing that the incident described in the latter didn't exist, but the fact that Kitten had access to the first made her nauseous. Nobody had found out – Philip had sworn not to tell a soul, especially since he was the one to instigate it. The lump in her throat grew, forcing her to swallow and curl her toes in her shoes.

"I never slept with your boyfriend!" Kory argued, teeth clashing together with each word. "I would _never_ do that to you."

"Just like you would never sleep with your sister's boyfriend?" Kitten mocked, and just hearing the phrase out loud made all of the guilt rush to her head, sending her reeling for air. It felt like the air was thinning out as she fought for breath, scowling at the girl who had finally released her arm and was now digging through her beige Gucci bag, without a care in the world.

Kory insisted, "I never touched Sawyer." Saying the phrase – particularly the phrasing of the words – made her sound like a billionaire heiress who frequently trapped men for fun, instead of the teenage girl she actually was.

"Does it hurt that I don't believe you?" the blonde taunted, and it took all of Kory's willpower not to throw her into the lockers. It would've definitely ended the conversation on a much more entertaining note, but she knew that the repercussions would be dire.

And then came the crushing blow. Kitten turned on her heel, but not before uttering the words, " _I can't believe I was ever friends with that bitch,"_ audibly enough so that Kory was aware of every single syllable produced. She paraded down the hallway, disappearing as soon as she reached the corner, leaving the redhead standing there in the dust.

Dick's timing was impeccable, and he appeared only thirty seconds later, moving swiftly out of the cafeteria doors. There was no possible way for him to hear the previous conversation, but even then, her body solidified and guilt pooled out of her senses.

"Hey," he waved, looking slightly confused. "You okay?"

She understood his reaction; her position from the middle of the hallway hadn't moved and her expression was probably blank, still trying to process everything that had just occurred.

Bobbing her head in affirmation, Kory finally moved from her statue composition. She linked arms with him, stifling a small yawn. He didn't seem convinced enough, and so he asked again.

Deciding that humming in agreement wasn't enough, she kissed him on the cheek, grazing the corner of his lips. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she cut in before he could properly respond.

"Can you come over today?" she questioned. "I know it is really short notice, but I want to work on our project. And I want to talk about our," she paused long enough to let him know what she meant, before continuing, "actions on Saturday. I think we need to try and define our relationship."

Her voice was soft as she looked into his eyes and waited for his reply. His eyes were the most beautiful shade of blue, and they were encircled by dark lashes and full eyebrows.

"Yeah," he smiled, before his tone turned teasing, "although I don't mind staying 'undefinable.'"

She playfully hit him, giggling loudly at his sudden (but not unwelcome) playfulness.

The rest of the day passed relatively quickly, and she tried to focus on her schoolwork, to the best of her ability. Her thoughts had settled a bit, making everything much easier to cope with. Class consisted of note-taking and the occasional smile from Dick that made her heart flutter. She had an awful habit of always catching his eye, and it became really distracting, especially when she was trying to finish the remainders of her notes.

Her brother had band practice after school, which meant that he was getting his own ride home from one of his friends. Kim was supposed to be at a lecture although she tended to skip a few of them; Kory would've walked home but Dick had his car with them, and it would be much quicker to drive.

His last class was Algebra, and she leaned against the lockers outside of his classroom, waiting for him. The bell had rung a couple of minutes ago, but he still hadn't been let out. High school students filed in-and-out around her, whilst she clutched her pink folder in one hand. She could see the thin figure of Mr Light through the small window on the door.

Dick finally appeared a couple of minutes later, holding an apologetic grin. "I hope you didn't have to wait long," he apologised, fingers brushing against her own.

She shook her head, one arm resting on his shoulder. "It's fine," she smiled, and they made their way to parking lot. Dick's red car was parked towards the front, and she followed him towards it. He opened the passenger's door for her, and waited for her to sit down, before closing it gently.

A couple of his CDs were resting in the side compartment and she picked them up. There was an odd collection, ranging from AC/DC to Taylor Swift, the latter being the latest two albums. She raised an eyebrow at him, holding up a copy. His cheeks stained red, and he hastily grabbed it from her hands.

"When Wally was trying to date Jenny, he found out she liked Taylor Swift," he explained, "and forced everyone to listen to the album. He bought a copy specifically for my car. It's not exactly the kind of music I listen to."

Turning on the engine, he flicked through the radio stations before a generic pop song came on. He winced a little at the music but didn't comment further. She noted that his car reflected his personality: clean and cut, organized, with a hint of playfulness, evident in his wide variety of music.

"The Demi Lovato album is when Wally had a crush on Megan Morse," Dick told her as she shuffled through his things. "And the other album is when he was trying to date Frances Kane."

She couldn't help laughing as he informed her of the numerous attempts made by Wally to woo various girls. It was extremely entertaining to hear the unique ideas that the group were forced to endure – Dick definitely had the worst experience with it since he was the one who'd had to drive the speedster everywhere before Wally had finally gotten his own car.

According to Dick, Roy was even worse, although he tended to be more successful. Kory had only met Roy once, and he'd spent the majority of the party sending odd looks to the dark-haired boy sitting beside her. He'd been friendly, albeit maybe a little too friendly when she received a couple of lewd glances, but for the most part she'd thought Roy Harper was a nice person.

The stories she heard seemed to ebb away at this image, although she'd definitely heard worse from Philip about college parties. He'd warned her several times about the techniques some boys used to sleep with girls. It hadn't really mattered though, because she'd ended up sleeping with him in the bedroom of some poor girl.

Ten minutes later, the familiar pastel-coloured walls of her house came into view. Her heart slipped a little when she saw her sister's car in the driveway. Their relationship had deteriorated even further, and she didn't want Dick to have to encounter one of the arguments between them. It would be awkward and unfair for him.

"Is that your parents' car?" he asked, frowning slightly. Kory had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't too fond of her parents, although she could understand his reasoning. Her father wasn't the most understanding person, and that's why she'd had to hide her first boyfriend – the cute Frank Crandall – away from her family.

Shaking her head, and allowing a couple of loose curls to fall out of her ponytail, she replied, "it's my sister's."

He didn't say anything as she unbuckled her seatbelt, but it the span of five seconds, Dick had already moved from one side of the car to the other. He opened the car door for her, and she blushed, biting back a smile.

"You do not need to do that," she chastised, but he only replied with a cocky grin.

"I like doing it," he answered back, before mumbling something about Alfred and his rules quietly. Another smile found its way onto her lips, tugging upwards and forcing her to laugh softly.

The pair stood outside of the door; Dick waited patiently as her fingers slid into her purse and hunted for her keys. She didn't need to bother, because twenty seconds later, the door opened and she came face to face with the last person Kory had ever wanted to see: Philip, with his caramel-coloured hair and gentle green eyes.

She almost cried out, there and then, cursing X'hal's name for her instant desire to ensure that today was the worst day of Kory's life. Her stomach tangled itself into unchangeable knots and she immediately clutched Dick's hand, fingers wrapping around his. Her breathing became unsettled, her teeth pressing together, and her legs wanted to her to flee.

"Little K," Philip greeted, rather coolly. She cringed at the nickname, hoping that the boy beside her wouldn't read into it too much. Dick was, after all, a detective.

"Hello," she greeted back, keeping a similar tone to his. Her hand instinctively squeezed Dick's hand in concern, and he replicated the action. It brought a sense of comfort, enough to allow her to casually ask, "what are you doing here?"

Philip flashed her a lazy grin and she almost glared at him. "Your sister wanted to pick up some things from her room," he told her, leaning against the door frame. He was wearing his red and yellow letterman jacket, one that she had worn several times, and the memory brought ripples of guilt. She could see the the outline of his clavicle: the sharp, slightly tanned muscles that were revealed as he adjusted the neckline of his shirt.

"Okay," Kory mumbled, unsure of the direction the conversation was taking. Taking a step forward, the redhead intended to walk into the foyer, but Philip continued to block her path.

"Well?" he asked, with that infuriatingly smug grin, motioning to Dick. "Aren't you gonna introduce me?"

Kory faltered for a moment, lips pressing together in a display of defeat. It had been her shameful wish that the two boys standing near her would never cross paths: they were supposed to represent different stages of her life. Philip held the key to the past version of her – the immature, childish girl who wanted attention and whose behaviour had wrecked the boundaries of her sister's relationship.

She swallowed her bile, using her free hand to gesture to the gorgeous boy standing beside her. "This is Dick Grayson," she said, observing the older boy's face for any sign of recognition. "He's my boyfriend."

Raising his eyebrows, whilst Dick offered a hand out for him to shake, Philip commented, "the billionaire's son, _right_?" He drew out the last word, almost mockingly.

"And um," the girl continued, turning to Dick, who was looking at her suspiciously, "this is Philip Karras. My sister's boyfriend."

For a split second, it looked like Philip wasn't going to shake Dick's hand, and her lips parted in concern. But then their hands connected, the former's face splitting into a small scowl. She released a silent breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding, and waited for Philip to move out the way.

As soon as the front door had closed, Kory gripped Dick's hand and led him upstairs. Her coat slipped off her shoulders as she raced up the stairs, ponytail crumbling open, sending curls flying. Her room was to the left and she yanked him into it, almost throwing him and herself into the wall.

There was a small table in her room – not as large as the desk in Dick's room, but it had enough space for both of them. She put her books down on the table and turned to Dick, who was the picture of confusion. He stared at her, opening his mouth to ask the inevitable question, but she cut the chase before the second word could be enunciated.

"I am _fine_ ," she laughed, noticing that they were still holding hands.

His expression hadn't changed, and she'd been waiting all day for them to be alone, so she kissed him, quick and chaste. It was intended to reassure him, but then his hands buried into her hair and he pulled her closer. It was easy to fall into him, and her hands linked themselves around his neck.

The kiss deepened, and the initial giddiness melted away into something more passionate, more needing. He pressed her against the wall, hands beginning to wander lower. But then he pulled away at the last second, with flushed cheeks, and she guessed that her appearance probably mirrored his disheveled state.

"Kory," he began, and she felt slightly light-hearted from the intensity of the kiss, "we should probably talk."

He sat on her bed, feet firmly pressed against the ground. She copied his movement. The awkwardness of the conversion was unavoidable, but it felt like they were both on the same page. Kory had the sudden urge to kiss him again, but she bit her lip and let her fingers dig into the mattress so that she wasn't tempted.

"So…" Dick said, fingers meeting up with hers. It was extremely obvious how he felt towards her – he was, after all, the one to initiate the first kiss – and she knew that he was waiting for her to explain her side of the story. She was the one who had become easily flustered and run off before they could probably talk – it was her go.

"I really like you," she admitted, and she could feel the heat emitting off of her cheeks, "and I, I came out of a really messy relationship during the summer. And when you kissed me, I was terrified it would happen all over again. But," she paused, teeth resting against her tongue, "I know it won't."

She'd wanted to reveal the truth to him, to reveal the true nature of her previous rendezvous, but she couldn't. He'd just met Philip and the revelation would cause their relationship to tumble down before it had even had a chance to stand properly. Everything would crumble into oblivion, and she would be forced, once again, to pick up the ashes.

After everything that had happened at the beginning of the year, Kory knew she didn't have the emotional energy to start again from scratch.

An eternity passed until Dick spoke again. He was soft and understanding – the perfect combination needed for the occasion. He kissed her cheek, lips lingering for a moment, before the blue-eyed boy pulled back. "I want to take you out on a date," he murmured, and she couldn't stop the smile from forming.

Kory had to bite her tongue to stop the squeal from exploding from her lips. Snuggling into him, she rested her head on his shoulder whilst his arm moved around her, tugging her curled body into his.

"We could go to the café you suggested," she proposed, moving her head upwards so she was inches away from his face.

There was a teasing smile on his face as Dick said, "I thought you wanted to invite Rachel," he poked fun at her.

The embarrassment came pooling out as she crimsoned. She didn't say anything whilst he continued the conversation.

His tone became more serious, and it became evident that this was a question he'd been wondering about quite a lot. "You kept doing that," he pointed out softly, "whenever I talked about 'us' you put Rachel into the equation. Is everything okay with her?"

Becoming rigid, Kory debated whether or not she should reveal the truth. It wasn't her secret to tell, but if Dick continued to stay oblivious, the results would be damaging to his and Rachel's relationship.

He was playing with one of her curls, and his fingers kept brushing against the nape of her neck. It was becoming increasingly distracting. Swallowing quietly, Kory mumbled, "Rachel likes you."

Dick's head jerked up, eyes wide. His hands dropped to his side. "Wait, what?" he asked, and she fought not to move his hands back to where they had been before.

Kory didn't bother repeating the statement. She was aware that they hadn't worked on their project, but she also knew that this was a piece of information that Dick needed to mull over. His brows were furrowed, and his gaze was locked, staring out of the window. She wanted to kiss him again, but it wasn't the most appropriate time.

Eventually he mustered a quiet, "oh fuck!" before his pitch increased back to normal. "Rachel wanted to talk to me about something during Donna's party, but we never got the time to. And then in between helping Tim and balancing school, I've barely talked to her. Fuck."

She bit her lip, concerned. Dick looked extremely worried, and she squeezed his hand supportively but he didn't return the action. He gritted his teeth, groaning softly.

A couple of minutes had passed, and his expression remained untouched.

"Dick?" she asked, shuffling from her position on the bed so that she was kneeling, properly facing him. "Is everything…" she trailed off awkwardly, unsure of how to end the sentence.

He smirked at her, throwing her trail of thought completely off balance. She'd never noticed how sexy it was, but now she was fully aware of all of the hormones rushing through her head.

"I'll sort it out," he promised, before his hands wrapped themselves around her body.

Her heart quickened and she leant forward, eyes flickering shut. His lips met with hers, soft and sweet, as he kissed her passionately. He'd already moved her closer to him again, and she could feel everything: every little breath he took; the way his lips moved against hers; the way her fingers tightened in his hair.

And then suddenly, all of her previous fears dissolved into nothing.


	19. nineteen

_Author's Note: Wooo! The chapter has finally arrived (albeit pretty late)._ _I'm so sorry this is late, I've been ill for the past four days (caused by my horrible weekend trip) and I ended up missing a day of school which meant I had to catch up on so much work. I couldn't stand for long, let alone write a decent chapter :(_

 _Anyways, happy (belated) anniversary to me and my time on ff net! I'm not gonna say much, I promise, but comparing where I am now (in terms of writing and fans) shows really how much I've grown lol. And my wonderful readers/fans/commenters are the best part of that! :D_

* * *

 **caution:** there is a (fairly) **detailed** scene **in this chapter** in which Kory has a **panic attack.**

 **if you find this subject or anything related to it distressing or uncomfortable:**

 **please stop reading** at the line: _"She had already swiftly moved into the room by the time Kim had been able to muster a response, she had shut the door."_

and **start again** at the line: _"Leaning forward, Kory kissed him."_

* * *

 _Chapter Nineteen: She Didn't Think She Would Ever Tire of Kissing Him_

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Kitten's words echoed in her head whilst she tapped her fingers against the desk. Dick was finishing off his notes, the picture of concentration: lips closed, eyes slightly narrowed, letting the words flow out of his pen. She didn't know why she found it so appealing, and for the second time that day, she found herself watching him instead of focusing on her work.

Thoughts still nagging at her mind, Kory put down her highlighter and exhaled softly. It wasn't just the venomous threat behind Kitten's words that bothered her. It was the timing. The dates on how she had discovered the information didn't match up. She had been in Monte Carlo for the whole summer, and there hadn't been any way for the blonde to personally stumble on one of the moments between her and Philip.

The implications made her chest tighten. Somebody else must have informed Kitten, meaning that there was yet another person aware of her secret. Her stomach lurched and dizziness clouded her senses. Turning to Dick, she asked, "do you want anything to drink? I'm going downstairs to get a glass of water."

He gave her one of those grins that caused her heart to pound erratically in her chest. "I'm fine, thanks."

She tried to keep the concern from appearing on her face, so she kissed him, short and sweet, cupping a hand to the side of his cheek. Perching on the desk in front of him, ducking her head downwards in order to reach him, their lips met. There was something irresistible about kissing him like that – it was highly addictive and once she begun it was almost impossible to stop. Her fingers were already making their way to his hair and her body instinctively moved closer.

Kory pulled back, moments later, with warm cheeks and wide eyes. Dick had copied her composure, with similar characteristics, although there was a small smile tugging from the corners of his lips. She assumed that one day, she would get used to kissing him like that, but a small part of her prayed that the breathlessness she encountered would stay there forever.

"I'll be a minute, I promise," she told him, and his only response was a small nod.

The drinking glasses in the kitchen were always hidden behind the mahogany cabinets. Her mother preferred to keep them beside the cups and fine china, and Kory always had to be extra careful whenever fetching items from the cupboard. Hand gripping the brass handle, she twisted it to the side before the door opened with a satisfying clink.

As soon as the water began to fill up in the glass, the audible sound of the kitchen door opening and closing was heard, and her head jerked in response. Philip was wearing one of his signature smirks. Her hand moved to the side, and icy water sloshed out of the glass, soaking her fingers. She almost dropped the glass in the sink.

"Your boyfriend seems like a nice guy," Philip commented, and she couldn't help notice the casual tone he used.

The sickness returned again, and she could feel the bile travelling to the back of her throat. She was frozen in the spot, filled with guilt. Her tongue couldn't move, and neither could her hand. The water began to numb her fingers.

Her sister was upstairs, unaware of what Kory had done, what she'd let happen.

"I didn't realise you were going out with a billionaire's son. You're moving on to a better crowd, huh?" Philip mocked, his voice becoming a little louder with each word.

Tears brimmed at her eyes, her lips turning downwards. She was a horrible person.

And then he became quieter, and his hands brushed against her skin. And small flashbacks of that night echoed in her head. The guilt was overwhelming, surging inside of her like a wave. Her balance teetered dangerously. She'd let him sleep with her, helped him to cheat on her sister.

"K, what's wrong?" he asked, and he genuinely sounded concerned.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She didn't know who she was apologising to. Perhaps it was to her sister, for her betrayal; perhaps it was to Philip, for allowing him to sleep with her; perhaps it was to Dick, for the mistake she'd committed during the summer.

His hand still rested on her arm, making her squirm. "Did you tell Kim?" he asked. "She's pissed at me but won't tell me why."

She hadn't said anything to her sister. She was a coward.

Kory mustered enough energy to shake her head. "No." Her stomach lurched, and she found her nails digging into her palms, red marks forming. Her body rested against the countertop, using it as support for her legs that had stopped responding.

"You look so gorgeous," he flirted, his thumb brushing over her lips. Her head jerked away, and she felt helpless. She had a boyfriend and yet she was doing nothing to stop Philip's forwardness.

"I need to go," she managed to say. His hand ran against the side of her waist before he dropped it. The guilt ate up any reminder that her gorgeous boyfriend was upstairs, waiting for her.

She could barely look at her sister, who stood at the top of the landing. Kim reapplied another coat of lipstick. Her hair was tied up in a bouncy ponytail, complete with a black crop top and mini skirt.

It was impossible for Kory to reach her own room without passing her sister. The conversation with Philip had made her dizzy, as the blood rushed in, pounding loudly. She walked slowly, feeling disorientated. Her focus stayed on her own door. Just a couple of more steps.

Kim cocked a hand on her hip and scowled, red lips turning downwards. "Tell Mom and Dad that I'm not interested in staying around for dinner," she informed the teenage girl, brushing the side of her tanned cheeks with bronze blusher.

Kory bobbed her head in response, before clasping the door handle.

Her sister's voice rung through the air once more. It dripped with venom, almost a sneer. "Have you stolen my purse? I can't find it and you're the only one in the family who likes it."

"I have not seen it," Kory mumbled. She had already swiftly moved into the room by the time Kim had been able to muster a response, she had shut the door.

Her legs buckled under her, and her back slid against the door, until she was sitting on the floor. The numbness returned, and she found it hard to focus on anything in front of her.

"Hey," Dick greeted, his voice echoing a thousand times in her head. She could hear the concern in his voice. "Kory?! Is everything okay?"

She could not breathe. Her lungs gasped for air, her mouth opening and closing rapidly. Her legs were jelly, arms softly shaking. She wanted to crawl into a little ball, away from everything.

She did not deserve Dick. She had done a horrible thing and was a horrible person and she deserved no sympathy or care or friends or love or -

"- Deep breaths," Dick instructed. "C'mon Kor, you can do this. You're okay. You're completely safe."

He was counting out numbers to correlate her breathing to. She tried to follow along. The guilt waived a little.

"You're doing really well, beautiful."

One arm of his was around her, the other by his side. His face was in front of hers. She admired the blue of his eyes. Her arms stopped trembling.

"Keep on breathing. Nice and slow."

The room was beginning to come back into focus. X'hal, she was so weak.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, tears balancing on her lashes. It was all she could say. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Don't apologise. You're safe."

He continued to talk to her, until she felt comfortable enough to spread her body out a bit further. Her hair fell in front of the side of her face, but she made no effort to brush it back. She was embarrassed, ashamed of her reaction.

Dick was smiling at her, and she hated the pity in his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"What happened?" the redhead asked. She had no interest in answering his initial question, swallowing the words alongside her guilt.

"You had a panic attack," he informed her, gently. His fingers brushed away her hair, tucking it behind her ear. He settled on the ground, moving out of his crouch. Her boyfriend's eyebrows knitted together. "Have you ever had one before?"

She appreciated his soft tone. "Once or twice," she admitted. Her body was exhausted, and she continued to rest against the door.

He kissed the top of her head, and she buried her head against his shoulder. It was warm and comfortable, making her feel safe. The smell of his aftershave was strangely comforting.

"Does anyone know about them? You need to talk to someone, beautiful," Dick said.

"Only Donna." Kory smiled at the memory, "she said the exact same thing."

His body straightened out, and he stood up. "Can you stand?" He offered out his outstretched hand, and she took it, using it to pull herself up. She scratched the side of her arm, nervous.

"Thank you," she smiled, wanting normalcy to kick back in and sort everything out. She waited for the inevitable question - do you know what caused it? - but it never came, and she was secretly glad.

Her guilt was the trigger. If only she could get over it.

Leaning forward, Kory kissed him. It was a weak attempt at moving on from the topic at hand, but it worked. His eyes shut in anticipation, seconds before hers did. X'hal, she didn't think she would ever tire of kissing him. Especially when his hands drew her closer and his lips parted and everything in her mind tingled with excitement.

He tasted slightly of orange, with the added sweetness of chocolate. Kory took a quick intake of breath, and a small moan escaped her lips before she could stop it. His palms were pressing against her forearm, fingertips brushing casually against the bare skin. She wanted desperately to lose herself in the moment, but then the guilt and panic crashed into her and she outwardly winced.

She needed to reveal the truth. It was the right thing to do – it would help with their case and it would lessen the burden before it hurt her anymore.

Ending the kiss, she smiled softly at him. She began to formulate a response, but then his hands tangled in her hair and he pulled her back. His lips touched against hers again, and her stomach twisted in delight. He ended it seconds later, cheeks flushed red.

Dick still looked at her, concerned, but she ignored it and sat next to him. Teasing the strands of hair between her fingers, she tried to neaten them out. His hands dropped back to his sides. It took a couple of minutes for her to fully adjust the messy curls, but the silence with him was always comfortable.

"We should continue with our work," Kory pointed out reluctantly, moving to the desk and picking up her pen once more. She paused, before turning to him, completely changing the topic. "Has Kitten said anything to you recently?" she asked, trying to sound as if the answer didn't terrify her.

Shaking his head, Dick shot her a small smile. "Apart from the occasional threat? Not really," he replied. Sighing a little, he tapped his pencil against the notebook. "I need handwriting samples from her, but I only share one class with her, and none with Amber or Hayley. We're running out of time."

Kory understood what he was asking of her, even before the question had appeared. "I have World History with all of them tomorrow," she reminded him, sitting cross legged on the chair. Propping her head up with her elbow, she rested it against the desk. The redhead offered, "I will get them for you."

She suspected his next question would be on the lines of "Are you sure?" but she was already kissing him again and her initial thought was never answered. It didn't matter though because kissing him was far more enjoyable.

She noted mentally that the conversation would never finish if the kisses persisted after every five words, and she pulled away with an apologetic grin. He didn't comment on her sudden affectionate gesture, but his body hadn't moved back to its original place on the middle of his seat.

The real truth was that kissing him helped to distract her from her impulsiveness. She was tired of waiting for a plan; Kory wanted to act, she wanted to confront Kitten. Her need for proper justice was very little – her stomach bubbled with the need for temporary revenge. Although the graffiti had revealed what many people truly thought of her, it had caused so many problems. She wanted Kitten to pay.

Dick checked his watch before looking back at her. She couldn't decipher his expression and it nagged at her mind. The redhead marveled at his ability to continue focusing on his plan – she knew so many other boys who would use the opportunity of an empty bedroom for other, more physical things.

But even if he wanted to, she wasn't sure she could. The idea of sex currently scared her.

"Kitten won't confess without any evidence," he told her, "but Amber definitely feels guilty about it. We need to show her that we're on her side."

Kory's fingers tangled with his. He squeezed her hand supportively, before continuing to discuss their plans. She listened intently, making mental notes on how they were going to approach the situation. The impulsiveness died down fairly quickly, although the remnants of it were still present in her head.

Any previous pretenses of work had faded away by the end of the afternoon. Her German homework lay untouched in her bag, alongside her Spanish and Algebra. He had left half-an-hour later with apologetic words, but not before she had given him as many kisses as humanly possible.

Dick had never known how affectionate Kory could really be. Even though he knew it was an immature thing to do, he couldn't help comparing her to Babs. The latter would kiss him and then tease him about the pinkness of his cheeks. She loved to tease him into oblivion, even before they had begun dating, and he guessed it probably fueled the reasons of why they broke up.

The rest of the week came tumbling in with a new wave of rumors, but they were the last thing on his mind.

He was worried about his girlfriend. Something was upsetting her, and he needed to help her. He had an awful feeling that it was something that had happened on wednesday, but he knew better than to interrogate her. She needed support.

He hadn't had a chance to talk to Rachel either, let alone find a way to explain the situation. It wasn't fair to brush it off or ignore it, but he still hadn't found the easiest way to explain the truth. He didn't want their friendship to crash and burn – she was like a sister to him, one of the few people he fully trusted.

His girlfriend was already at her locker by the time he arrived to school on the damp Friday, only two days after their impromptu study session. Dick still hadn't told Rachel the truth – she deserved to hear it from him first – and he wasn't the fondest of public displays of affection but Kory was looking so gorgeous that he couldn't resist. He kissed her cheek quickly, grazing the corner of her lips and using her waterfall of hair as a curtain to hide from everyone else.

She greeted him softly, leaning against the lockers. They had French first, and he put his arm around her, slightly possessively. The action could be brushed off as an amicable gesture if somebody asked about it, but it also sent a silent message of warning to any overly creepy guys. Kory leaned closer into him, hair brushing his shoulder.

It was a shame that Madame Rouge didn't like either of them, and refused to sit them together, regardless of the fact that they were both fluent in the language. They entered the classroom, and he suppressed a grin once he noticed their unavoidably male teacher.

It was Mr Soto substituting that day, which didn't make much sense since he didn't speak a single word of French. Most students took advantage of that fact and the compulsory seating was temporarily ignored. Dick moved to the corner that Kory usually sat in, eyes widening when he saw Hayley Adaro sit one desk behind.

He didn't have to say much to the redhead; one quick glance in Hayley's direction and a look of understanding passed on her face. There were two spiral notebooks on the desk, and whilst the dark-haired girl turned around, Kory's fingers yanked a loose page free. She pressed the sides of the sheet together, folding it neatly, before dropping it into her own bag.

They still needed something from Amber and Kitten but it was a start.

Turning back to the girl beside him, his eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the look on her face. She was staring at the wall in front of them, lips turned downwards in discomfort. It was a pose she had seemed to mimic a lot in the past few days; it had begun the day he had kissed her and had occurred ever since.

The expression had been most prevalent during Wednesday, but Dick guessed it was due to the coldness of Philip. He'd only met the guy once, but the college boy's need for control (which included a strong handshake accompanied with an icy glare, almost as if it was supposed to intimidate the receiver) would probably put any person in an uncomfortable state.

"Kor?" he asked, and she hummed in response, blinking at him with tired eyes. She still looked really gorgeous though: rivulets of curls spilling down her back. The temptation to kiss her was almost overwhelming and all of the hormones rushed to his head and flooded his senses. Swallowing, he pointed to the whiteboard that had been filled up with a list of questions they needed to answer. "Wanna start?"

After a while, it became obvious that she was still a little tired, because she would occasionally slip into words of French whilst they chatted amongst themselves. It was endearing, especially when her native accent trickled through the cracks of the words making every word sound a thousand times better (and a thousand times more attractive).

Unless the work was especially thought-provoking, most of the time Dick found the class boring. Kory kept it entertaining and for the twentieth time that year, he wished that Madame Rouge wouldn't separate them. Regardless of the fact that he was dating her, she was naturally more interesting and allowed for everything to seem more enjoyable.

Class ended quicker than he liked, especially when he knew that he had Biology next. As the pair walked leisurely through the hallway, the occasional whisper caught his ear. Most of them were from freshman kids – usually girls – who weren't aware that their conversations were audible to most of the people present. They chatted about makeup and boys and the occasional irritating teacher.

He kept an eye out for the dark-bob of Rachel, having not seen her since the day before. Wally had a doctor's appointment and was missing their science class, although he would come back at the end of the day. It was a shame that Gar seemed to have disappeared along with Rachel. Dick really needed to talk to her and he wasn't going to delay the inevitable any further.

Kory's skirt rode up a little when they reached the staircase, and he had to grip the railing to prevent himself from falling. Her pace matched his once more, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear whilst they walked. Eventually they reached her classroom and she bid him adieu, clutching her History textbook in one hand.

Once again, he found himself inches away from kissing her but the second chirp of the bell reminded him that he really needed to get to class. Biology passed quickly, along with the rest of the morning, until he found himself walking unhurriedly to his lunch period with Kory. She'd managed to take a sample of Kitten's handwriting (albeit with a little difficulty, she had sheepishly explained). The conversation eventually moved to the topic of Rachel.

"I haven't had the opportunity to talk to her all morning," Dick complained, hands burrowing themselves into his pockets. He didn't mention the urgency of the situation. There was already another fresh set of rumors circulating around the school, all including Kory in some sort of format and even if he wasn't included in them, there was no way he could be entirely sure.

The gorgeous girl beside him frowned and suggested, "she might be ill," but the idea was dismissed very quickly.

"Gar had Algebra with her," he replied whilst they turned the corner, "and Wally saw her coming out of the library this morning. She's definitely at school."

They entered the cafeteria, and he momentarily waited for his girlfriend to collect her lunch. Wincing at the multicolored lump of mashed potato that had been placed on her plate, the heir of Bruce Wayne immediately passed her a carrot stick to munch on. She pulled a face, tilting her head to the side.

"X'hal Dick," she scolded, "you don't need to give me your food." There was a strange tone to her voice; she sounded upset with him. Her skin had become paler and he struggled to find a reason for her distress.

Lowering his voice, he moved closer to her. "You're my girlfriend," he pointed out, feeling cheekier than usual. He began to pass her the carrot stick once again, fingers touching hers. "I can do whatever I want," he told her playfully, seconds away from kissing her cheek, "to treat y– "

It was terrifying how quickly she froze, eyes wide. Her hand immediately dropped to her side, and the tray tilted dangerously in the other hand. He grabbed it before it clattered to the ground, but the water bottle collided with the floor, causing a few people to stare at the pair in disgust. Stealing a quick glance, he noticed the redness of her eyes and his lips parted in shock.

A second later, she stooped to the ground, clutching the bottle in her hand. He was still holding the tray and he silently followed her to the table. "Kory?" he asked, all traces of the playfulness evaporating from his voice. "Is everything okay? I didn't mean to upset you with –"

"– It is nothing," the girl interrupted, swallowing noticeably. Her expression had become sharp. "I am sorry, I just got distracted."

Dick didn't believe her for a single second. "Kor, that wasn't nothing." He was scared for her. "What happened?" The questions began to flow from his lips and he couldn't stop them. He was so concerned, carefully analyzing her every movement. "Are you okay? Do you wanna talk about it?"

The colour was beginning to appear back on her face, and Kory seemed to relax a little more. "It is fine," she insisted, and he made a mental note that he was going to find out whatever it was that upset her. She didn't seem willing to talk about it and he wasn't going to push her and make her uncomfortable, but it was something important that needed to be addressed.

It was a solid relief when he noticed Rachel sitting daintily at the table, eating one of her sandwiches. Kory sat down quickly, avoiding eye contact, and he understood her request. She needed space. Even then, he squeezed her hand reassuringly under the table, sending her a supportive grin. Her response was a pretty smile, but her eyes had that faraway look on them, like she wasn't fully paying attention to everything.

As soon as he was sure that everything was okay, his attention moved to Rachel.

He tried to murmur it as softly as possible, which proved to be very difficult due to the fact that Kory was sitting between them. Refusing to touch his lunch until the matter had been sorted, he asked, "Rachel, can I talk to you privately?"

The boy didn't wait for her response. Instead he gently untangled his fingers from the redhead beside him, and stood up. Rachel copied his second action, and they disappeared through the double doors into the bleak hallway. She walked a little slower than him, and he wasn't sure if it was intentional or not.

His stomach twisted itself into a couple of knots. He gave her his kindest smile, leaning against the wall. "Um," he began, before he let the words tumble out in the least eloquent way he could manage. "Kory told me about, how you…" Dick paused, and gulped. "…feel."

The skin around her mouth stretched as her lips parted. He regretted the effect of his words – they made her look so vulnerable and scared. It had never been his intention to hurt her. Rachel was a wonderful person, and she didn't deserve the way he had treated her in the past few weeks. He had brushed her to the side, and he had dragged her back, only to deliver a crushing blow.

She seemed to have found her wording. Biting her lip, she asked, "and do you, do you feel the same way?" Her voice had turned to a whisper, and her eyes distanced on the lockers behind him.

His answer felt too quick, too rushed, too heartless. Dick felt like he was stabbing her, physically ripping her apart, and from the expression on her pale features, she must have felt the same way. The pitch of his voice matched hers. "No," he admitted, apologetically. He sighed softly. "I'm so sorry Rachel, I-I don't."

Her attention moved to the ground, head bowing. "Right," she said, letting out a bitter laugh. "Right, no, um, it's fine."

"Rach–" he began, but the dark-haired girl cut him off.

There wasn't any coldness in her words, but the emotional distress was evident. "I hope you and Kory are happy together," she wished, and his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

Scratching his arm, he asked, "how did you…" he trailed off, before a sinking feeling arrived in his stomach and told him the truth.

"It's all over school," Rachel explained, voice devoid of emotion. "Apparently some freshman saw you kissing."

That explained the odd looks he had received from Wally all morning. Dick wanted to point out that he had kissed Kory's cheek, but it wouldn't help the situation in any way. Instead he bit his tongue and refrained from the inappropriate comment. Finally, he helplessly repeated, "I'm sorry," trying to show her how bad he felt.

"I," the girl said, beginning to move away. "I have to go."

He almost grabbed her hand to prevent her from leaving; he didn't want to upset her any further, but he knew that it was another action that would only worsen matters. "Rachel, I'm really sorry," he recited, miserable.

She didn't say anything in reply, but the look on her face was enough to want to make him throw himself against the lockers. He sighed softly once more, praying that their friendship would be able to recover from this.


	20. twenty

_I'm gonna use this opportunity to remind you that there are only a few chapters left. Get ready for some angst! :D_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Twenty: He Knew That She Was Lying**_

* * *

Two weeks passed, and eventually everybody settled back into the traditional routine. Rachel had been avoiding him and as a result, their group had begun to crack under the strain. Gar's crush on her made him extra snarky towards Dick, whilst Wally tried to calm things down. The awkwardness resumed, and the heir of Wayne Enterprises wished that his friendship with her didn't have to crumble so easily.

He sat in class, finishing off the last exercise. Yet again, Mr Light was the substitute teacher for his French class, perched on the front desk with a slight frown. Madame Rouge's absence had been the talk of the school, with most believing the rumor that she had fled to Paris with a talking gorilla to take over the world.

Dick on the other hand, had never heard anything so ridiculous before in his life.

"Are you finished with your work yet, Mr Grayson?" the older teacher sneered, and Dick found himself wishing that the school rules would temporarily disappear, just so he could hit the man standing opposite him square in the jaw. It was aggravating how every adult (Bruce _especially_ ) treated him with an air of patronization. Dick wasn't a three-year-old; he was practically an adult (there were only four months until his eighteenth birthday).

The seat beside him was empty due to his girlfriend having a doctor's appointment. He cast a quick glance at the space before adding the final accent on his letter, resting his pen against the table.

He guessed that Mr Light's personal life was under strain. The older teacher was checking his emails on his laptop and the pained expression revealed the nature of the messages. Dick watched him for a second, biting back a yawn. Mr Light looked up, scowling suddenly.

"Focus on your work Mr Grayson," the man instructed, crossing his arms.

There was a small titter of giggles that followed, and the boy's ears burnt with slight embarrassment. Dick turned his attention elsewhere, towards the rest of the students. Three quarters of the class were texting, using the big textbooks to hide their phones. Bette was painting her nails whilst Toni chewed bubblegum beside her. Jenny was redoing her lip gloss.

" _Grayson_." Mr Light hissed, glaring at the aforementioned boy intensely. "Last warning."

Dick had already finished all of the required work within the first ten minutes. Madame Rouge had always insisted on giving him and Kory the same questions that the rest of the class did, regardless of the fact that they both spoke fluent French. Flicking to an empty page in his notebook, he decided that he would work on the case.

It was constantly on the forefront of his mind. He'd sorted out all of the major details – equipment, culprits etc. – but one final point remained. He still hadn't worked out the motive behind Kitten's actions, and it continued to aggravate him. She wasn't the type of girl who was purely malicious. There were reasons behind her actions, ones that still hadn't become apparent.

The older teacher finally walked up to his desk with a cold expression. He dropped a folded note onto the table, accompanied with a small smirk. "Since you've already completed all of your work, you can deliver this note to the main office." Mr Light told him, and Dick shut his notebook. He didn't bother gracing the instructions with a reply. Instead he reluctantly trudged to the doorway, ignoring the urge to roll his eyes.

The hallways were empty, and he quickly found his way to the main office. As expected, Ms Hive was on the phone, but to his surprise, Amber was also sitting on one of the chairs. She was drenched in a caramel coloured liquid – from the smell, Dick guessed it was coffee – and there was some similar coloured sauce smeared on the bottom of her skirt. She'd been wearing a pale pink skirt and a white top, but both of them were covered in splotches.

Ms Hive looked up and gestured for him to wait five minutes, so moved to the seat beside Amber. She was looking downwards, soft strands of ginger hair sticking to the damp patches on her shoulder, but as soon as he sat down, her head tilted up.

"Hey," he greeted, slightly awkwardly.

Her eyes were red, the same colour that was sprinkled lightly on her nose. She visibly gulped, fingers twitching by her sides.

"Hi." she returned back, looking miserable.

"What…" he paused, trying to be as sensitive as possible. "Um, what happened?"

Her lower lip trembled slightly, and he immediately regretted the question. Dick hadn't meant to upset her, but he had been genuinely curious. She looked up at him, eyes darting towards the empty space where Ms Hive had previously been. He guessed it was probably something that he didn't want other people overhearing, specifically adults.

Amber revealed, "it was Kitten." Her tone had taken a bitterer tone, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Her voice began to shake a little. "She…she thinks I'm gonna tell everybody the truth about the graffiti. Which, is _really stupid_ because she knows that I –" she cut off her sentence, choking back a sob.

Dick's eyes widened and he instinctively put an arm on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. The fabric felt sticky between his fingers. Meanwhile, Amber used her own hands to rub at her eyes fiercely. Her nose was wrinkled, lips turned downwards as she cleared her throat and tried to compose herself.

"I hate her," she whispered. "I hate her so _fucking_ much. She's the most manipulative person _ever_!" The ginger haired girl sounded worryingly angry, fists balling up by her sides. She sniffled loudly, almost snarling. "She pretends to be _so_ perfect, when in reality, most of her relationships are based off of how many secrets she knows about you. She was one of the reasons why Tara transferred schools!"

Although he had barely interacted with her, he knew that Tara and Amber had both arrived from the same middle school, and had been extremely good friends until the former had left. He also knew that Tara had temporarily stopped being friends with Amber, due to her (then) forming friendship with Kitten and Kory. It became extremely obvious that Amber hadn't let go of her jealousy.

She sniffled once more, using her sleeve to wipe away any stray tears. Her anger became more apparent as she grit her teeth, before it collapsed into something more subdued. "I," she mumbled, "I don't even know why I did it."

He frowned, confusion swarming his mind. Dick waited for her elaborate, and for a few excruciatingly long seconds it didn't look like she would, but then she slumped against the chair. His hands dropped to his side whilst he stole a quick glance at their surroundings. Ms Hive was nowhere to be seen.

Hugging her own chest, Amber revealed, "Kitten told us all that Kory was sleeping with Sawyer."

He wasn't sure how to process that, although a little part of his chest tightened slightly. Kory had made it clear on several occasions that she had no interest in Kitten's boyfriend, and Dick was a good enough judge of character to know the truth. It sounded like another one of Kitten's lies, used to bring more sympathy and attention to herself.

Amber must have noticed the skepticism on his face, because she added, "him or some college boy. I don't really know. I-I didn't really pay attention to the details."

Hating how an image of Philip briefly flashed in his mind, he forced himself to stare at the wall instead. He was letting drops of his insecurity get in the way of the investigation. But even an _amateur_ detective would have been able to notice the way the college boy had interacted with his girlfriend – the platonic touches that had made Kory's lips turn downwards. There was something off about that relationship, and he was trying to figure it out.

The motive had been revealed, but it only led to another set of questions. Rubbing the side of his arm, he watched as the last remaining tears drizzled down the side of her cheeks. She exhaled sharply, wiping away the water from her face.

"I really wish I'd never done it," the girl admitted softly, and he patted her shoulder comfortingly. Dick didn't believe that she had meant to hurt anybody – it was her low self-esteem that had allowed Kitten to manipulate her, using Amber's jealousy to fuel a personal vendetta against Kory.

He was about to reply, but then he noticed the other figure. Ms Hive had crept back into the room, armed with a couple of files and a stapler. She made eye contact with Dick, and he reluctantly passed her the note.

He'd already glanced at the contents on the trip to the office – it was a request for some documents. After a brief silence filled with scowls from the older woman, she turned to one of the filing cabinets and grabbed another series of files. Her skirt swished against the cabinet.

"Here," she said, passing him the file. Her lips stayed downwards, and he briefly wondered if that was just her natural expression.

He gave her a small smile as he clutched the file. "Thanks," he told her, trying to keep the boredom from seeping into his voice.

Her response was another grimace and he only sighed quietly, realizing that it was his cue to leave. He cast another look at Amber and smiled reassuringly; she copied his actions with (thankfully) dry eyes. He moved quickly into the hallway, remembering that there was still thirty minutes of class left for him to endure.

The morning passed quickly, but there was a lingering feeling in his gut that there was a part of the story he was still missing. The temptation to ask Amber was almost overbearing, but she had seemed to disappear from the school. He assumed that she'd been sent home to get changed, but the timing was all wrong and she should have been in his Spanish class by then.

Placing his US History textbook into his locker, he turned just to see his best friend race towards him. Wally grinned, reminiscent of an excited puppy, before leaning against the lockers.

"Artemis finally agreed to having a date with the Wall-mister," he smirked, hands in his pockets.

Dick almost laughed behind his hand at the situation. "She actually agreed?" he asked, slightly skeptical.

Wally faltered. "I mean, um, I _think_ she did. She said "we'll see," which is _basically_ girl talk for 'yeah,' isn't it?"

"I'm not sure it is," the black-haired boy, pointed out, hiding his smirk.

"Yeah, well she gave me her number so she can't back out now," Wally concluded, smugly. Dick didn't have the heart to point out the flaws in the runner's argument, so he just nodded and grabbed his chemistry textbook instead.

Shutting the locker door, he was met by unknown hands tapping against his shoulder. He turned around and was greeted by the sight of his gorgeous girlfriend, resting against the wall. She grinned at him before leaning forward and kissing him hard. Her arms looped themselves around his shoulder, pulling them even closer towards another.

They were interrupted by the sound of the third member of their group clearing his throat, and muttering something about hormonal teenagers. Dick had half a mind of reminding Wally how disgusting him and Jenny had previously been, groping one another during lunch break and using pet names to address each other.

Instead, he let go, cheeks flushed as he waited for the blood to reach his head again. "Sorry," he mumbled to Wally, before looking back at her. "Hey," he greeted softly, scratching the back of his neck with one hand.

"Hi," she responded, readjusting her ponytail which had become messy after he'd accidentally tugged a couple of strands out.

"How was your doctor's appointment?" he asked, fingers tangled with hers.

She tilted her head and the corners of her lips quirked upwards. "It was fine; just a routine check-up. Did I miss anything special?"

He considered revealing the details of his conversation with Amber, but then decided to wait until Wally had gone. There was far too much information that had been collected, and trying to explain the whole situation to him would take too long. It was a discussion they needed to have in private – especially since he had a bad feeling about the motive.

Ignoring the need to kiss her again, he played with the soft strands of her hair. "Not much." Lowering his voice, he continued, "I talked to Amber though."

Her expression became more serious, mouth parting to reveal straight teeth, eyes widening slightly. The bottom of her lashes had clumped together, and there was a stray eyelash on the corner of her eye which he removed. He pressed his lips against her cheek. "I'll tell you about it later, promise."

The redhead cleared his throat once more, and Dick shot him a dirty look. Kory stifled a giggle, the grip on his hand loosening a little.

"You've met Artemis before, right?" Wally asked, hopeful.

She bit the corner of her lip, lip gloss smearing slightly. "I have World History with her. I don't really talk to her much."

Dick predicted the direction of the conversation, minutes before the question was asked.

"Could you ask her something for me?" Wally continued, and it was obvious from the way his girlfriend winced that she had caught on to the issue at hand. She paused for a moment, and Dick squeezed her hand.

"Of course," she smiled, and he was temporarily distracted by how pretty she looked. The rest of the conversation was a little hazy, but he could tell from the way Wally obnoxiously fist-pumped the air and from Kory's lovely laugh that she had agreed to find out what Artemis truly thought of him.

The bell rang, reminding him that he needed to get to class. He had Chemistry next, and Kory's Biology class was only a couple of rooms away. They walked at a leisurely pace, weaving in-and-out of the thinning crowd. The redhead beside him was unusually quiet, and he noted that she was deeply absorbed in her own thoughts.

"Kor?" he asked, waiting for her to hum in response. "Are you alright?"

Everybody had little physical indications when they were lying. Kory was naturally honest and more open with her emotions, and it was usually easier to tell whether or not she was telling the truth. Her nose wrinkled ever-so-slightly, the most obvious sign that she was about to lie. He paused in anticipation.

Her smile gave no suggestions of ill intent – wide and gorgeous. "I'm fine, don't worry," she reassured, but the first letters were partially obscured by her native accent and he knew that she was lying. He didn't press the matter, but he squeezed her hand and hoped that she would find a solution to whatever problem she had.

Stopping outside of the classroom, Dick's clasped her shoulders, fingers burying into her low ponytail. His lips touched hers, parting whilst her arms found themselves around his neck. He let go seconds later before giving into temptation and kissing her once more, and then another, until the sound of the second bell tore him away. Mr Chang wasn't particularly fond of him, and if he arrived any later, he was going to end up with a detention.

"I'll see you at lunch?" he asked, and she nodded, waving.

* * *

"So then she comes up to me, giving all of these Miss Trunchbull vibes and passes out a handout of the email I sent her. Turns out I'd accidentally sent her the link to a website about looking after slugs! She didn't appreciate it and gave me detention for two days because of my late homework," Gar groaned, taking a bite of stale pizza.

Dick fought the urge to laugh at the absurdness of the story, but Gar's antics were the most entertaining thing he'd heard all week. Instead, he let out a small chuckle and disguised it as a cough when the blond sent him a dirty look. Biting into his apple, Gar was the embodiment of defeat, with thin lips pressed into a grimace and eyes drooping downwards. The events of his story had only happened five minutes ago, and he was definitely annoyed.

Kory arrived seconds later. She kissed her boyfriend's cheek and took her seat beside him. Minutes later, her fingers were intertwined tightly against his, resting on the top of her thigh. He couldn't help casting a small glance at her, eyebrows furrowing as his mind desperately tried to work out the reasoning.

She was naturally affectionate, and their relationship had always been filled with intimate actions, even before they had officially started dating. But the past week had brought a hurricane of moments, and he knew that something had changed. She was constantly kissing him, and each kiss ended with a guilty look on her face. Their conversations had become much shorter, and there were days where it seemed like she didn't want to be around him.

There was something wrong, and he was trying to figure it out.

"Vic!" Kory suddenly called out, waving. "Come sit with us!"

Looking upwards, he spotted the large figure of the football player coming towards them, holding a tray of (what he guessed was chicken and rice) and a bottle of water. Dick knew that there had been a couple of issues between the jocks of the football team, after a prank on a sophomore had gone slightly wrong, and the usual table where the team sat was currently empty.

Vic grinned, relieved, taking a seat beside Gar. Rachel had to squish to the left to accommodate the extra person, causing her to nudge into Wally. Dick took a bite of his apple and there was a moment of silence before Gar suddenly piped up, with the enthusiasm of a Golden Retriever.

"Dude, did you know there's a vegan restaurant that just opened up last Saturday?" he asked. "They apparently do the best smoothies in all of America – according to their slogan anyway. I don't really know if it's true but we could all check it out this Friday," he suggested, turning to look at everybody on the table.

Dick did the same and noticed that Rachel didn't look very interested. Wally was finishing off some Calculus homework, but from his expression, the dark-haired boy could work out that he approved of the idea. Vic was smirking at Kory; his girlfriend was trying to sneakily take a cherry tomato from under his nose, using Gar's conversation as a distraction.

She kissed his cheek as soon as he turned to face her, popping it in her mouth and giving him a brazen smile. He tried to keep a straight face, but her grin was infectious as she leant towards him, and his left arm found itself around her shoulders.

"We could go there," Vic pointed out, "but there's also a new Texas grill that's just opened. I've heard that it sells the best BBQ ribs in the whole city." He teased Gar, allowing Dick to realise just how good friends they were. The guilt crept in a little – he'd never properly spoken to the football player, and yet all of his friends – including Kory – were on great terms with him.

"Ribs?" The blond asked, wrinkling his nose and sticking his tongue out in disgust. "Why would you wanna eat ribs? _Ew_!"

"I don't know, man," Vic replied, "there's something delicious about BBQ ribs slathered in sauce, served with a plate of fries."

Gar reenacted retching, and the table dissolved into laughter. Wally looked up, a half-smile tugging on his lips, before he scowled again, and dropped his pen on the table.

"Hey, _Kory_ ," he asked, in the exact type of tone that alerted everyone that he was going to ask her a favor. "You've done the calculus homework, _right_?" He stretched out the last word, batting his eyelashes.

Dick's girlfriend nodded, offering, "do you want me to get it from my locker for you?"

Wally nodded, "I promise it's only the last three questions!"

As soon as Kory stood up, Dick copied her. "I need to get something from my locker, too," he insisted, ignoring the amused looks from the rest of his friends. He knew that it sounded like a lame excuse, and it _was_ far from the truth, but he had a perfectly valid reason to want to talk with her in private, away from prying ears.

In a voice reminiscent of a stage whisper, Vic asked, "is he always obsessed with his girlfriend?" It was all in good nature, and Dick jokingly scowled at the boy.

Gar was the second half of the act, putting down his piece of pizza to give his own commentary. "You should've seen him before they got together. ' _Oh Kory, I'll walk you to every single class! Let's go to my fancy house for a study session, even though both of us already know all of the material!'_ " His dramatic attempt at impersonating Dick caused even _Rachel's_ lips to curve upwards in entertainment.

" _Come to my fancy ball Kory!"_ Wally added, " _Here, share my lunch as well!"_

Vic caught eyes with Dick, and then his smirk became even bigger. "He's all embarrassed," he pointed out.

Instinctively crossing his arms over his chest and ignoring the heat emitting from his face, the object of their teasing claimed, "I'm not!"

The redhead tugged his arm. " _I_ thought he was sweet," she remarked, before she embraced him and pressed her lips against his own. Head reeling from the shock, it took a couple of seconds for him to return her affection and actually _kiss_ her.

His friends didn't exist for a couple of seconds, until Gar cried out, "Dude _eww_! You guys are practically groping each other!"

"I didn't think I could go through lunch without seeing that." Rachel added sarcastically as they pulled apart. For a horrible moment, her expression was empty, before the tiniest glimmer of a smile appeared on her face. Dick knew that their relationship wasn't going to magically become stronger again, but it was a reassuring start.

As soon as they were back into the empty hallway, he kissed her against the lockers, much more comfortable with the fact that they didn't have an audience. Her eyes were wide as she broke away, gripping his shoulders for support.

"We should probably go and get our things, Dick," she giggled, as he nibbled on the corner of her lips. " _Dick_ ," she repeated again, except it was more breathless and on the verge of a moan. He had to bite back a smug smile.

"I don't know," he winked, before kissing her neck, "I'm pretty comfortable where I am."  
This time, her smile was more seductive. "Are you, hmm?" Kory flirted, arching her back so that he could kiss her neck better. His lips brushed against the side of her neck, before moving up back to kiss her properly. Her fingers were already tangled in his hair, yanking it slightly. She was giggling softly, and he could taste her vanilla-flavoured lip gloss against his tongue. Her lips parted, and he only kissed her harder.

They were interrupted by the sound of an exaggerated cough, and his cheeks flamed. He prayed it was just a random student – preferably a freshman who would mysteriously transfer out of school the next day. Anybody who wouldn't recognize him or wouldn't be able to tell anybody else he knew.

It was worse. It was Mr Light, holding one of those extremely agitated looks that were comical in television but terrifying in real life. Kory was already straightening out her skirt, and Dick ran a hand through his hair in a vain attempt to stop his hand from automatically scratching his neck in embarrassment.

"I would remind you on the school's policy about public displays of affection," Mr Light retorted, "but I doubt you'll listen. This is a warning, Mr Grayson. I _don't_ want to see this sort of behaviour again, otherwise you'll be spending your lunchtimes organizing the physics cupboard." His words were stern and threatening. "And _you_ , Miss Andrews. I thought you would try to _disprove_ the comments made about you."

Kory's mouth opened, but Dick was the first to speak. " _Hey_!" he called out, fists already clenched by his sides. "You have no right to talk her like that–"

"–I can call the principal if you would like," the teacher threatened, obviously finding some sort of twisted enjoyment in the situation. "I'm sure he would be more than interested in what you were about to say."

Shaking his head, Dick didn't say anything else. There wasn't much he could do, but fume silently. He _hated_ the level of corruption at this school.

Kory's cheeks were stained red, mirroring the colour of her hair and she stared at the ground. He waited for the miserable man to walk away before moving towards her. She bit her lip before laughing softly.

"We should really go and get our things now," she told him. He nodded, and they walked in silence.

As soon as they reached her locker, his hands linked with hers. She leant against the lockers, a position eerily similar to the one they had been in moments ago, but instead of kissing her, he focused on the way her green eyes looked back at him. Tucking back a strand of her hair, he asked, "you're not doing anything next Saturday evening are you?"

"I'm not," she assured him. "Why?"

"I'm taking you out," Dick told her. He loved the way the smile formed on her face, as she tilted her head and played with his hands. His girlfriend was the most gorgeous girl on the planet, and her smile was definitely worth going to a (slightly snobbish) fancy restaurant. Mr Light's warning was beginning to fade in his head, so he kissed her once more.

And there it was again. The tiny flash of guilt that clouded her expressions and caused him to drop his hands from her waist. It was a flicker, nothing dramatic, and yet it reminded him that there was something wrong.

She opened her bag, and a little piece of paper fluttered out, landing on the ground. It was a blurry photo, but he could make out bright red curls and an unknown figure standing beside. Kory picked it up, and her eyes widened. Her lips pressed together as she muttered inaudible words. Her whole body seemed to freeze up.

And then she jerked into motion, scrunching the picture up before he could properly look at it, and tossing it in her bag. He frowned, trying to understand what was happening, what would prompt such an odd reaction.

Trying to act as nonchalant as possible, he casually asked, "what was that?"

"Nothing," she replied, pulling out her calculus textbook.

It was obvious she was lying.

He paused, softly holding her wrists. His girlfriend was obvious distressed, and he didn't want to press the matter any further. " _Kor_ ," he said.

"It was _nothing_ ," Kory insisted. Her voice had become sharp and unnecessarily harsh. She softened considerably, after he rubbed little circles over her fingertips. "Dick, don't worry about it."

Beginning to walk towards the cafeteria, he had to increase his speed to walk beside her. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, eyes narrowed, heels slapping against the floor. She seemed to have a death grip on her bag, and her nails made thin marks on the leather.

"Um," she started hesitantly, "what did you and Amber talk about?"

His mind sprang into action, trying to connect the dots. "Kitten's motive," he responded, relaxing as her pace decreased and her movements began to seem more calm, more natural. "She," he faltered, but continued to speak, moving around the matter as delicately as he could, "she said something about you and Sawyer?"

Kory rolled her eyes. "Was it something about me sleeping with him?"

It was the way she said it, that really reminded him how ridiculous the whole scenario was. He grinned. They were approaching the cafeteria doors, and he _needed_ to ask. "yeah…but it was also something about you and a college guy?"

She gave herself away by a tiny, involuntary flinch. "Really?"

He held the door for her, waiting for her to continue. But she didn't. She turned away from him after giving him one of her signature guilty looks (one that he was beginning to get used to receiving), and arrived at their table. She passed her homework to Wally, pointing out one of the errors he had made on question four. She laughed at one of Gar's jokes, and chatted to Vic about football, and even recommended Rachel a book.

Kory hadn't answered the question, and he wasn't sure what that meant.


End file.
